


Transcending Boundaries

by angiembabe



Category: Yugioh
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Gen, May be some swearing, Post-Dark Side Of Dimensions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-02-09 15:20:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 39,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12890742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angiembabe/pseuds/angiembabe
Summary: Seto Kaiba has achieved his dream of reaching the afterlife to duel Atem. However, things don't go as planned and he is in for a few surprises; especially when Yugi, Jonouchi and Anzu try to follow him.I usually post my stories on Fanfic. This is the first time I have posted anything on here as well, so please be nice to me.





	1. A Lesson In Power

**Author's Note:**

> I first wrote this chapter six months ago. I have since been planning the story. I really wanted to know what happened after the end of DSOD, when Seto Kaiba made it to the afterlife and faced Atem. It was left hanging and really screams... sequel! We can but hope, but in the meantime, I have written my own sequel. I really hope you enjoy it.

Transcending Boundaries.

Chapter one: A Lesson In Power.

He had done it! His gamble had paid off!  
Weeks of hard work and financial investment, had been worth the sacrifices he had needed to make in his own personal life in order to reach this goal. And as Seto stepped through the barriers that separated the dimensions, he smirked triumphantly at his own genius. Any concerns he had harboured about being ripped apart by the gravitational force of the dimensional portal were eased.  
The Duel Links VR system had originally been designed to transport brainwaves not your entire physical being. But it seemed that the software upgrades he had made to incorporate the Cube and reinforce the specially designed skin suit he was wearing, was doing its job perfectly.  
The sensation felt strange; reminding him of the time he and Mokuba had played on a roundabout until it made them feel so dizzy that they were still spinning when they got off.  
Thinking about Mokuba caused him to feel momentarily guilty. The last words he had said to his younger brother, were not 'I love you', but, 'you're in charge'. Poor kid had been beside himself with concern when Seto stepped into the sealed airlock, sat down in the adapted gaming chair and plugged in the Cube, without first testing it was safe to use.  
Was he reckless? Probably. But he did not care. For as much as he loved Kaiba Corporation and of course, Mokuba, they were far less important to him than his rivalry with the Pharaoh.  
Moments later, he felt a rush when he passed through a dimension that resembled Egypt. He hit the button on the control panel of the transporter module that was built into his duel disc and stopped abruptly.  
Rather than the Arnold Scwarzenegger style entrance from the Terminator films he had envisioned, he landed face down in a rather undignified heap on the sand – but at least he wasn't naked!  
He quickly scrambled up so that he was in a crouching position, and spitting out sand, dared to chance a glance at his surroundings, studying it for threats. Was he in the correct dimension?  
The temple in the distance and the warm sun on his back, indicated that he was.  
Standing to his full height, he puffed out his chest and strode towards the palace.

 

By the time he reached the outer walls, the sun was climbing higher and the desert sands were starting to feel hot under his feet. The palace was far bigger than he had anticipated.  
He looked up at the twenty foot tall statues of the Pharaoh and his Queen, proudly guarding the entrance gates. “Hmph!” He snorted. The Pharaoh was even more of a narcissist than he had imagined he would be!  
“Halt!” Two burly, deeply tanned guards, dressed only in short kilts barred his way. “Who wishes to enter the palace?” They glared at him in confusion. He was Priest Set but in strange attire that was not familiar to them.  
To Seto's relief, the language communicator that he had programmed into the system worked and he understood their words. It sent the same shiver down his spine as it had when he had been able to decipher the hieroglyphics on the Son of God Dragon RA!  
“Let me pass! I have business with the Pharaoh.” He ordered. The ancient language rolled off his tongue as though it were his own native Japanese.  
“Yes, my Lord Set!” Both men bowed their heads low, with their left foot towards him as though he were some sort of God.  
Without another word, Seto marched into the palace triumphantly.  
A strange feeling of familiarity came over him; as if it were some residual memory that had lain dormant in him until now, and he instinctively knew where the throne room was situated.  
The guards stationed at the entrance to the throne room hesitated when he approached and were unsure if they should meet his eye or bow in respect. Was this some trick of the Gods? They were certain Priest Set was already inside the throne room for the afternoon meeting!  
All heads turned towards him as he walked in, and a series of gasps and mutterings could be heard among the priests and scribes.  
His eyes locked on the one man that he was here to see.  
A small twitch at the corner of the Pharaohs' mouth, signalled recognition.  
Shifting his bodyweight a little, Seto assumed his battle stance. Raising his left arm, he primed his duel disk. “Duel me Pharaoh,” he hissed.  
The moment his duel disc lit up, two guards jumped forward hesitantly and angled their spears towards his neck.  
The corners of Atem's mouth rose slightly, but his expression remained Godlike as he pushed himself to his feet. He raised his hand to dismiss the two guards and silence the protests from his priests. Everyone fell hushed.  
“We will duel, but on my terms, Kaiba,” Atem responded, raising his diadank.  
However, one of his priests was less than pleased: Set stepped forward. “Pharaoh! I must protest. Whoever this...this imposter is, let me deal with him?”  
“No!” Atem snapped. “Set, I know this man. He is from the future. He is a modern incarnation of yourself. He and I share a great rivalry. But it seems we still have unfinished business.” Atem turned back to Seto. “How did you transcend the boundaries that divide dimensions? It should not be possible for anyone other than a God!” Or a fool with the cube.  
“Then maybe I am a God!” More murmurs could be heard from the priests.  
“He should face a trial for insulting our Pharaoh!” The old bearded one with the eye patch, shouted out. Aknadin had been spared by the Gods and granted his place in the afterlife, but as a reminder of his treason, he had been cursed with a hole where his left eye should have been.  
Seto rolled his eyes. “Will you please tell Popeye to be quiet?”  
To everyone's surprise, Atem turned to them and asked them not to interrupt.  
Stepping down off the dais, he walked to the centre of the throne room to face Seto. He held up his hand and a grating sound could be heard as four stone tablets pushed up through the floor behind Seto, causing the brunette to raise an eyebrow at them.  
“What are they?”  
“These are an ancient form of Duel Monsters card. If your mind is powerful enough, you may summon up to four monsters of your choice with which to fight. Few people are capable of summoning even one monster, without being trained to do so.” Atem smirked at him.  
“I accept your challenge! How do I summon my monsters?”  
Atem explained that the monsters at their disposal were mainly Ka that had either left their deceased host and been captured and placed in the stones to prevent them causing trouble, or been forcibly removed from criminals. To summon them, you merely connected your mind with them, calling them from where they slept in the Temple of Wedju. If successful, the monster would appear on one of the slabs. Atem finished by demonstrating; calling forth Kuriboh from his one and only slab.  
“Are you trying to insult me by summoning that pathetic runt, Atem?” Again, more shocked gasps from the priests at Seto Kaiba's lack of respect towards the Pharaoh. It was considered an insult to call Atem by his name, rather than title.

Atem ignored it and smirked. “Kuriboh is a loyal servant. He is my monster of choice.”  
“I had hoped you might summon your Egyptian Gods for me to crush.”  
“It is not always about power, Kaiba.”  
Seto merely snorted. “You may live to regret that choice, when I summon Obelisk The Tormentor!”  
“Go ahead and try! He will not answer to you in this dimension,” Atem knowingly stated.  
“We will see about that!” Seto tried to will the God of Destruction to come to his slab, but nothing happened. “What?! But I summoned him before! In the temple.. when I was fighting Aigami.”  
Atem shook his head. “No, you did not. When I sensed that your life was in danger, I sent him to protect you.”  
Seto startled at the revelation. “You mean, you knew?! “  
“Shadi informed me that his young protege, Diva, had given himself over to his dark side and was causing trouble. The dimensions were becoming unstable due to Diva's misuse of the Cube and its power. We observed your duel in the tomb and your desire to summon Obelisk was so strong that I answered your plea for survival, by ordering the God of Destruction to protect you.” Seto's lip curled into a snarl at the knowledge that it had been Atem who had saved him.  
“Why didn't you come yourself? It would have neutralised Diva's power.”  
“Unfortunately, without the completed Puzzle to use as a conduit, I was unable to return. And even then, only Yugi has the power to summon me in person.”  
Kaiba pulled a face that showed he was clearly not amused. He took a breath and grunted. “In that case, I summon Battle Ox.” He tensed up and appeared to be visibly concentrating on trying to summon a monster. The priests all expected him to fail, but Atem had confidence that he would succeed. A few seconds later, the monster appeared in the slab. Seto smirked. “That was easy,” he hissed. “If that is your monster, then this is all I need to defeat you. Battle Ox, destroy his slab!” Battle Ox immediately materialised and smashed his sword onto Kuriboh's slab, shattering it.  
Seto let out a roar of laughter. “That pathetic creature did not stand a chance against my monster!”  
To the side, the priests were smiling. In particular, Priest Set, who was watching with a sense of deja vu. His cousin was teaching his rather obnoxious, future incarnation a lesson in humility and abuse of power.  
Seto stopped gloating when he noticed that Atem was still standing tall and proud, with a smirk on his face. He gasped when he saw that the broken pieces of the shattered slab, each contained a miniature Kuriboh. Thoughts of the time Yugi had used Multiply on Kuriboh to cripple his Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, came back to haunt him.  
He decided to act before Atem had chance to make his move. “Battle Ox, finish...” He did not get to complete his sentence before Atem called forth hundreds of tiny Kuriboh's.  
Battle Ox was engulfed by the fur balls, which started exploding on impact until Battle Ox disappeared. Seto was defeated – yet again!  
“Grrr... that was cheating!” He bellowed.  
Atem just smiled with amusement. “It was you who destroyed my slab! Let this be your first lesson in humility Kaiba. If you ever wish to beat me in a duel, you have to overcome your jealous obsession with me and see me as a friend rather than an enemy.”  
“You can't dismiss me like this! Not after I sacrificed so much to come here!” There was a slight note of desperation in Kaiba's voice – not something Atem was used to seeing in the usually overconfident man.  
“You are welcome to stay here as my guest. Priest Set will show you to your guest quarters. I have a meeting to attend now, but I would like to invite you to have dinner with me in my chambers later. We can talk then.” He turned and calmly walked back towards his throne.  
Seto could not believe that Atem could be so dismissive of him. “Don't you dare turn your back on me!” Atem ignored him and calmly signalled to his guards to escort him to the meeting room.  
For once, Seto did not know how to react. His lookalike approached him and gestured for him to follow. Seto scowled at him. His lookalike rolled his eyes and Seto wanted to slap his face for being so pompous. It then occurred to him that it would be like slapping himself!  
Without argument, Kaiba followed.  
They were silent as they walked towards the guest quarters. After a few moments, Kaiba felt the need to break the silence. “Why do you serve him? Do you not want the throne for yourself?”  
Priest Set smiled at him. “I once challenged his authority in the same way that you just did. Oddly enough, the duel was almost identical. Except that my monster of choice was my Spirit Ka, Duos. But the outcome was the same; I lost and I learned a valuable lesson.”  
“And what was that lesson exactly? Because it was so boring that I have forgotten.”  
The lookalike just laughed. “You are so like me, it scares me!”  
“I scare most people,” Seto answered, blandly.  
Smirking, Priest Seto showed him into a large, elaborately decorated room. The bed was big enough to rival his own back at the mansion.  
He scanned the room, and then turned to his lookalike. “I asked you a moment ago. Why do you serve him?”  
“Because it is my duty as a priest.”  
“Don't you crave his power?”  
Lookalike shrugged. “I once had his power. But I am content with who I am now.”  
Seto Kaiba was intrigued. “Care to explain why?”  
Lookalike smiled and sat down on a chair. “It may take a while!”  
“I am in no hurry to go anywhere.”  
The Lookalike nodded. “My mother left the palace when I was very young. I grew up without privileges and was unaware that my father was the brother of the Pharaoh. My mother taught me to read and write. When she died, I went to the palace and demanded that they take me on as a scribe. I was turned away. But Aknadin spotted me and took me under his protection. I joined the priesthood as a trainee and rose rapidly through the ranks. I later discovered that he had taken me in because I was his son...”  
While he had been talking, Seto Kaiba had been chewing over the connection between his ancestor and the Pharaoh. “Are you trying to tell me that you and Atem are related?” He frowned.  
Priest Set nodded. “My father and Atem's father, are brothers. Our mothers are sisters and also cousins to our fathers.” Seto's lip curled in slight disgust that their mothers had also been related to their fathers, but that was common in ancient times so he did not remark on it – at least they were not all brothers and sisters!  
“You could have taken the throne and ruled as Pharaoh if you wished. Why didn't you do so?”  
Priest Set fixed him with an intense glare. “Aknadin craved power and it destroyed him. He sold his soul to Zorc to become the High Priest of Darkness. He invited me... or rather, forced me to join him. It was his intention to make me Pharaoh. Had I succumbed, I would have ruled over a world shrouded in darkness and fear. Populated by demonic creatures from the depths of the underworld.”  
Seto suppressed a shudder at the thought that Aknadin sounded a bit like Gozaburo. “He offered you power and you refused? You should have taken his power and then dispensed with the old fool. You could have then shaped his empire into a world of your choice.”

His ancestor shook his head sadly at his descendant's attitude. “Not power. Enslavement to an evil darkness that no mortal can resist. I was almost consumed but it was Kisara who saved me.” His face became saddened at the memory and Seto noticed how his fists clenched as he spoke. “Aknadin knew I was in love with her but he still took her life.” He composed himself once more. “But when he killed her human body, her true nature as a Goddess was released. She destroyed Aknadin and became my guiding light. She watches over you too. You may know her as your Blue Eyes white Dragon.”  
Upon hearing this revelation, Seto felt himself shiver in awe. In an attempt at hiding his emotions, he smirked. Somehow, he had always known that there was more to his Blue Eyes White Dragon than it just being a card. Whenever Yugi and his grandfather had banged on about the heart of the cards he mocked them. But his mockery had been a way of disguising his love for the Blue Eyes White Dragon. The knowledge that she had once been a beautiful young woman made his heart feel lighter.

Priest Set smiled knowingly. His modern counterpart was more spiritual than he would admit. It was obvious that he liked to think he was above silly sentimental emotions – just as he also had been throughout much of his own mortal mortal life. “Kisara's soul was unique; she was born as a human but carried the soul of a Dragon Goddess. When I became Pharaoh, her soul continued to guide and protect me as I rebuilt the kingdom and made Egypt great once more.”

 

As he spoke, Seto's jaw dropped open. “I was.. I mean, you become Pharaoh?! How?”  
Priest Set smiled. “Are you surprised that I would be content as a priest in this life?”  
“Surprised? I'm horrified! You were given ultimate power! Yet the moment he shows up again, you give him back his throne!”  
“The throne was never mine to keep. I ruled in his place for three millennia, while we awaited his return. To be honest, I was quite bored at times; being Pharaoh involves quite a lot of sitting around listening to other people droning on about their insignificant problems. And I don't have time for people who can't sort out their own problems.”  
Seto Kaiba chuckled. “I know what you mean. If people complain, I fire them.”

 

“That is not so easy in the afterlife. We have rules that are designed to ensure everyone is happy and fulfilled, and for the most part it works. Atem is the Pharaoh who watches over our Nirvana, and as his priests, we too are responsible for helping him preserve Maat. Those souls who grow restless and do not wish to stay, are offered the chance to be re-born as a new person, but the person they were I the past, is lost. Only in rare cases are they banished to the underworld.”  
“Harsh... But fair,” Seto nonchalantly responded.  
“Do you have any more questions?”  
Seto scratched his chin. “Just one for now. Why am I more or less identical to you?”  
“I wondered if you might ask. Those connected to the Millennium Items were given the ability to crate new souls from their own, so that when the time came for our Pharaoh to be re-born, our future selves would be able to assist him. It may not have gone entirely smoothly, but worked out in the end.”

“Okay, sounds ridiculous, but I get it. But, one thing is still unclear. If the Pharaoh was sealed in the Puzzle, where did Yugi come from?”  
“Not all of Atem's soul was sealed. When his soul was fragmented, some of it was preserved by the Gods for when the chosen one was conceived.”  
Seto snorted in amusement. “And Yugi Mutou; one of the most pathetic kids in class was the chosen one.” He remembered how Yugi had whined at him when he took the Blue Eyes White Dragon card. Yugi had irritated him so much, that he had clobbered him with his metal briefcase. He had expected him to stay down, but Yugi had got up and shown that he did at least have some guts. When they duelled, Yugi's whole demeanour had changed. He also remembered how Yugi's better half and Ishizu, had waffled on about destiny. At the time he had mocked them for what he perceived to be a load of mumbo jumbo nonsense. When Yugi had sat in the helicopter and told Seto that he was once a Pharaoh, Seto had been quick to castigate him. But deep down inside, he had known. He just could not accept it.  
Priest Set smirked slightly at the perplexed look on his descendant's face. He understood that look.  
“Anyway, I have business to attend so I will take my leave now. Should you require anything, ask one of the guards outside and they will send a servant to assist you. I would strongly recommend that you wash and change into more appropriate attire for your meal with the Pharaoh. You smell of sweat and you also stand out like a septic thumb.” With that, he turned on his heel and left the room.  
Pouting, Seto slumped onto the large bed and sniffed his armpit. Hmph! What a nerve, telling him he smelled! And then he smirked. He would have been just as blunt.  
Checking the control panel on his wrist, he noticed that the monitor had switched to standby, meaning that it was not needed to sustain him. This was good news, because it meant that the skin-suit he was wearing might not be needed to sustain him while he was here, after all.  
When he designed the suit, he had taken into consideration that the afterlife was only meant to sustain the spirits of the deceased, and had been unsure what effect this might have on a body which still had fully functioning vital organs.  
But it seemed that the environment here was no different than what his body was used to. Either the afterlife had adapted to him being here, or his body had adapted to its surroundings. Whatever it was, he did not really care.  
Under normal conditions, the battery held approximately ten hours of charge, after which, the safety feature would kick in and transport him back to his own dimension to prevent permanent cell damage or death. He had brought a spare battery with him, just in case, but now it seemed that the only time he would need the suit would be to travel home again. He could keep the suit safe in his room and stay here for as long as it took to defeat Atem.  
He called for the servants and watched as they filled a large terracotta tub full of water. He thanked them and told them they could leave. Placing a wash cloth and clean robe on the dresser, the two servants left.  
After they had gone, he nervously peeled off the suit. When his heart did not stop or his body disintegrate, he heaved a sigh of relief. A soft breeze wafted in through the window, caressing his skin. It felt good to be naked.  
Picking up the wash cloth, he stepped behind the screen and into the wash tub. It was big enough for him to sit down with his knees up, but not big enough for him to lay back and relax. Still, it was better than nothing. Pouring some of the scented oil he presumed to be some sort of liquid soap, onto the cloth, he dunked it into the water and started scrubbing away the sweat and sand. He noticed that there was an extra jug of water next to the tub, which he assumed was to rinse the soapy stuff out of his hair.  
Lifting the heavy jug, he slowly poured it over his head and sucked in a breath as the cold water ran over him.  
Feeling refreshed, he picked up the other cloth and dried himself off before pulling on what appeared to be wrap around knickers. It took him a few moments to fathom out how they fitted but once on they were remarkably comfortable. He pulled the loose fitting robe over his head and tied the sash around his waist. He looked down at himself. Was he really wearing a dress?  
He carefully folded the suit and placed it under the pillow for safe keeping. However, he decided to wear his duel disc because it contained the translation device and the cube – which had the remarkable ability to melt itself into the device - and then flopped down on the bed to rest and wait for the guards, or someone, to fetch him for his meal with the Pharaoh.  
::::::::::::  
Alone in the control room, Mokuba sat, glued to the monitor. When Seto had said that he was going to find Atem, Mokuba had not believed it possible. But as usual, his brother stubbornly refused to drop this stupid obsession with Atem. Instead of working on their dreams for the future, he had shut himself away in his private laboratory to study the cube, only coming out to shower, change his clothes, eat and sleep.  
When, six weeks later, he told Mokuba over dinner that he had worked out how to transport himself into the multiverse without being torn apart, Mokuba was amazed – his big brother was a genius.  
But when he found out that Seto did not intent to test the system first, and planned to use himself as guinea pig, Mokuba began to worry. “Is your rivalry with the Pharaoh really that important for you to risk your life over Seto?”  
Seto had just smiled at him and asked if he doubted his calculations. “No, but...”  
“Exactly Mokuba. I do not make mistakes.”  
The following day, he took Mokuba to see the satellite pod containing the modified gaming chair. “This is how I will travel. My engineers are taking it to be installed in the space station.”  
“But shouldn't we test it first? What if it malfunctions?”  
“It won't. And it is not possible to do a live test because the pod can only be used once.”  
Leaving Mokuba to operate the monitors in the ground based centre, Seto stepped into the space elevator and made his way to the space station. 

 

White light had filled the monitor that Mokuba was glued to. It was like watching a new universe being formed. The thought that his brother was at the epicentre terrified him. But when the light cleared, the satellite pod had vanished, along with his brother.  
The only proof that Seto was still alive was the transmissions being sent from the suit he was wearing, indicating that his body temperature, brain waves and heart rate were all within normal parameters.  
Mokuba had no idea how he would bring him back if anything went wrong!  
He picked up his sandwich and took a bite. All of the readings on the screen in front of him suddenly went to zero. The half chewed pieces fell from his mouth.  
His worst fears were unfolding. He was unaware that it was because Seto had removed the suit.


	2. Transcending Boundries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a little bit of adult material but nothing graphic. There could also be the odd curse word.

Transcending Boundaries

Chapter 2.

The weeks following graduation were rather full-on for Yugi. Not only were he and his friends adjusting to life outside high school, but he was also having to deal with the media attention surrounding his rather odd victory at Seto Kaiba's tournament.

He had not heard anything from Kaiba, but the media were reporting that he had gone to ground; apparently to work on rectifying the problems that had occurred during the final duel. According to a spokesperson, a malfunction inside the server had caused a power fluctuation, resulting in the manifestation of the faulty Diva hologram.

Jonouchi described the statement as a pile of bollocks and Yugi did not disagree with him. But as the victor of a final that no one had actually been awake to witness the conclusion to, he had to come up with a more intelligent answer.

None of them had any idea how close they had all come to oblivion and Yugi chose his words carefully. His friends were impressed with the way he diplomatically avoided telling the truth, while at the same time describing how he had never stopped believing he would win and that his plea to the Heart of the Cards had been answered by his most trusted friend. The interviewer took this to mean his Dark Magician had been the key to victory. Yugi just smirked knowingly and did not add anything else.

Thankfully, after six weeks the fuss was finally starting to die down enough for Yugi to breath properly again.

::::::::::::

Although they were still not officially a couple, Yugi and Anzu had been spending more time together. Anzu did not have dance practice today, and he had managed to get out of running the shop for the afternoon so that they could spend time together, alone.

Anzu's parents were both at work, so rather than go out to the mall, they decided to hang out at Anzu's house.

Yugi hoped that they might spend the afternoon getting more intimate, but Anzu had put on an old film starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astair. Yugi was not in the least bit interested in the film, but since Anzu loved the music, the dancing and the New York setting, he was happy for it to be on if it meant that he could be close to her.

The film was going over his head as he sat chewing on how to start a conversation about their physical relationship – or lack of.

Because they were such good friends, they always felt so comfortable together. The downside of this was that they took each other for granted. However, things had started to get a little bit awkward lately and Yugi sensed that it had a lot to do to her leaving for New York in a few weeks.

He really wanted to ask her to be in a proper relationship with him, but did not know how to say what he wanted without it sounding like he wanted sex - which he did, but only if she wanted it.

Fearful of rejection, he was quickly coming to the conclusion that it was probably best if he didn't say anything at all. They were okay as they were, weren't they?

When they were alone together, they cuddled. They had even kissed a couple of times. But in public, she was always telling people they were just good friends, and this was starting to confuse him. He was even begnning to wonder if she was embarrassed about being involved with him romantically. It hurt to think that she might reject him.

He screwed his eyes shut and breathed in the scent of her hair as her head rested against his shoulder. If they were not destined to be together then he would enjoy these moments.

He could feel his arm starting to go numb where she was leaning against it, and had to adjust his position slightly.

She lifted her head and sat up at look at him. "Are you okay Yugi? You don't mind watching this, do you?"

"I'm fine," he confirmed. "Just losing the feeling in my arm."

"Oh! Sorry," she giggled, sitting forward so that he could pull his arm free. "Is that more comfortable?" She said, leaning back again and taking his hand in hers. Smiling, she entwined her fingers with his and pulled his hand down to rest in her lap.

He glanced down at where his hand was and felt himself heating up at the thought that she might let him slide his hand between her legs.

But as much as he wanted to act on his desires, he did nothing.

"Ooh! I love this dance!" With a whoop of delight, Anzu suddenly leaped up. She started to copy the moves on the TV screen. Yugi chuckled and watched her dancing. He could not have cared less about Ginger and Fred, but Anzu was simply beautiful to watch.

"Come on Yugi?" She extended her hand. "Dance with me?"

"Whaaa! No way! Two left feet, remember?" He laughed and waved his hands defensively.

"Don't be a spoilsport! I will teach you the steps." She grabbed his wrist and tried to pull him off the sofa. "It's easy."

He reluctantly let himself be dragged to his feet. "I only know one dance, and that is the 'step on your partners toes' dance," he complained.

"Then I will keep my toes out of the way. Stand next to me and we will start slowly." She held his hand, dipped her hip and tapped one foot forward and then out to the side. He tried to follow her moves and was finding it easier than he thought he would. She picked up the pace and suddenly spun herself around on her toes. Taken by surprise he tried to lift his arm for her to spin underneath but he mistimed it and went the wrong way, causing them to become tangled up. Anzu was laughing so much that she almost fell over but Yugi wrapped his arms around her to prevent her falling and pulled her close.

He suddenly realised just how close they were when she put her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck as she continued to laugh. Her warm breath tickled his neck and made him feel amorous. His heart jumped when he felt her eyelashes fluttering on the sensitive spot on his neck where his ear joined his jawline.

He almost let out a squeak when she then placed a kiss on the same spot. He wanted her so badly.

They had no idea who instigated it, but the next moment they were kissing far more passionately than they ever had previously.

Anzu's hands quickly found their way inside his shirt, fervently kneading and stroking muscles in his back.

One of his own hands rested on the small of her back, while the other grasped at the soft, silky flesh at the top of her thigh. Hormones on fire and feeling bold, he started exploring where he had never been allowed to explore before – thank Ra she was wearing a short skirt.

At first, he was afraid she might knock his hand away. But instead, she moaned into his mouth and he felt her body quiver slightly as he tentatively pleasured her.

His libido was telling him to ravish her, but his common decency was warning him to stop this at once. She was going to New York soon and had hinted that her priority was to concentrate on her dancing and not become involved in a serious relationship. If this was going where he thought it was going they would end up naked, having sex, and that would make them serious, wouldn't it? Stop! Don't stop!

Suddenly, the need to breath pulled them both apart. "I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" He panted, removing his hand from between her legs "I didn't mean to..." His fingers felt like they were coated in silk, making him shiver with desire.

"It's okay Yugi." She ran her palm over his cheek and gently cupped his jaw. "I.. I..." She swallowed nervously. "I know what I said about not waiting a relationship until I had finished my degree in dance. But it's not fair of me to ask you to wait."

"But I can wait!" He blurted, stupidly.

"Can you? I'm not sure if I can."

"But I love you Anzu. I will do whatever you want!"

"You are too nice Yugi. I take you for granted and I shouldn't. Mai told me that I should stop stringing you along and make my mind up before some other woman catches your eye."

Now he was starting to worry about where was this conversation going. Was she about to dump him? "I don't think you are stringing me along! And I don't look at other women – not in that way!" Not strictly true. He liked to look but... "I would never cheat on you!" Now he was sounding desperate.

She removed her hand from his face and ran it down his arm and took his hand, steering them both to the sofa. They sat down, nervously facing each other. This is it, she's going to tell me she only sees me as a friend.

"Yugi I... We have been friends for such a long time. But my feelings for you..." She was interrupted mid sentence when the door bell suddenly ran, startling them slightly.

Frowning in annoyance she huffed, "I wonder who that is?" When she went to stand up, Yugi pulled her back down.

"No! Please...? I need to know what you were about to say?" He gave her a nervous, defensive grin. The door bell rang again, this time, impatiently.

"I should..." she pointed at the door, "answer it first. Just in case it's a delivery or something. Then we can carry on," she winked at him, gave him a quick peck on the cheek and stood up. "I love you too Yugi." She whispered the words bashfully, as if embarrassed by them. Face pink, she hurried towards the door.

His mouth formed an O as the meaning in her words dawned on him. He felt a big surge of relief and his libido swelled with expectation.

::::::::::::

Whoever was at the door seemed impatient. Anzu was about to call out that she was coming, when she heard Mokuba's desperate shout.

"Yugi? Anzu? If you're there, please answer? It's urgent!"

"Mokuba!" Anzu gasped in surprise, "What are you doing here? Is everything alright?" A desperate looking Mokuba surged into the hallway, just as Yugi came out of the sitting room.

"Sorry for barging in like this, but you gotta help me? It's Seto. He's gone!" Tears filled his eyes as he spoke.

"What do you mean, gone?!" Yugi asked, concern masking his irritation at having their make-out session interrupted.

Anzu placed a sympathetic hand on Mokuba's shoulder. "Where has your brother gone Mokuba?" Mokuba let out a sob, accompanied by a rather snotty, bubbly sniff. "Yugi, can you get the box of tissues for Mokuba, please?" She pointed to the sideboard in the dining room. Yugi did as he was told.

Composing himself, Mokuba thanked Yugi for the tissues and blew his nose like a trumpet.

As Yugi waited for Mokuba to finish blowing his nose, he felt like he had been here so many times before: Kaiba messes up and ends up in serious trouble, leaving a frightened Mokuba to come running to him for help, resulting in Yugi risking his own safety to save him – when would Kaiba ever learn? He was getting a little fed up with it. "What has Kaiba done this time?" His voice came out dark and accusing. Anzu felt a chill run down her spine – he sounded just like Atem.

"I'm sorry Yugi. I know you must be getting fed up with this, but you are the only person I can trust and who might know what to do."

"It's okay Mokuba. Don't apologise, just tell me what happened?" Yugi tried to give him a reassuring smile.

Mokuba smiled at Yugi through his tears and explained how his brother had spent the last few weeks modifying the cube and building a pod which could transport him to other dimensions. When he got to the part about wanting to see Atem, Yugi clenched his fists and looked visibly shaken.

"The thing is," Mokuba continued, "he was wearing a special suit. It is designed to keep him from being torn apart or incinerated when he moves through barriers. It was transmitting his vital signs until about an hour ago and then it stopped. I tried to ring you but you didn't answer, so I went to the game shop and your grandfather said you were with Anzu. So I came here. I'm sorry."

Feeling a twinge of guilt, Yugi looked over to where his phone was resting in his jacket pocket. He had turned it off so that his nice afternoon with Anzu would not be interrupted by people messaging and ringing him – which happened a lot these days. "I should apologise to you Mokuba. I turned my phone off. I kind of get a lot of fans ringing and it gets a bit much sometimes." He took a steadying breath and Anzu squeezed his hand.

"Do you know if your brother found Atem?" Anzu asked as calmly as she could. Mokuba shook his head.

"I have no idea. I can't communicate with him."

"We will help you find him, won't we Yugi?" Anzu gave Yugi a pleading look and he gave her a worried smile. His jaw tightened apprehensively and Anzu noticed how his previously pink, flushed cheeks were now a little pale.

"Yes," he replied, "we will try to help. Do you want to show us where he left from?"

Mokuba nodded. "I hope you don't mind, but when I couldn't contact you I called Jonouchi. We're picking him up on the way."

Of course they did not mind. The pair grabbed their coats and shoes and followed Mokuba outside to the waiting limo.

They picked Jonouchi up outside the shopping centre where he worked as a cleaner. "What's Money Bags been up to this time then?" He did not seem very amused. He was even less amused when Yugi told him that he had gone to the afterlife to duel Atem. "Is he insane?!"

No one answered his rhetorical question and Mokuba looked away – he could not disagree with Jonouchis's comment.

On the way there, Mokuba explained that they were not going to Kaiba Corporation HQ, but rather to a small control centre on the edge of Domino Harbour, in which the space elevator to the space station was housed. Mokuba explained that the space station was Seto's sanctuary. The technology was so advanced that if Seto wanted, he could take over every computer in the world, should he choose to do so. For a short time, Mokuba seemed to cheer up as he swelled with pride at his brother's genius.

"So, he built the space station to snoop on what people were doing?" Anzu raised an eyebrow.

"No! It's to house the Duel Links server primarily. But the technology is so sophisticated that he could control any computer, television transmission, radio broadcast, electronic gadget... You name it, he can control it. Not that he would!" He added, when he saw the horrified looks on there faces.

Yugi rolled his eyes. If he were to judge by past behaviour, he would not put anything past Seto Kaiba if it meant getting what he wanted.

"So, how high up is this space station? And what's it look like?" Jonouchi wanted to know.

"It's not as high as the international space station," Mokuba informed him. "And it does not move. It generally stays at around fifty thousand feet and is anchored to the ground by the space elevator. I guess it's more like a sophisticated barrage balloon than a space station."

"Haven't you seen it Jonouchi?! It's quite easy to see from the ground," Yugi informed him.

"Yeah, course I have!" He lied, "Just ain't paid it no attention."

The car drove up a dirt track. Barbed wire and 'private' 'keep out' signs marked the entrance. Yugi noticed the infra red beams that deactivated as they drove along, reactivating behind them after they passed.

"We're here." Before them, on a rocky outcrop, jutting into the sea, was a domed, silver, white and glass building with the KC logo embossed on the panelling. A thin white, shimmering beam extended from the top of the dome, upwards into the sky. The beam attached to to the space station. Jonouchi let out a whistle of astonishment. "Wow! Dat looks like something you see in Star Wars!"

"One day, my brother hopes that colonists will be able to travel to other dimensions and live in constructions like these. You will be even more impressed by the space station. The technology is still in it's infancy, but we have been developing a system where there is normal gravity in out of space. We are doing the final tests with NASA, and they hope to use our environmental system in the International Space Station within the next twelve months or so."

"Wow! We can still float about if we go up there, right?" Grinning like a five year old in a sweet factory, Jonouchi pointed to the KC space station.

Mokuba rolled his eyes at him. "Only if I alter the environment."

"Are you forgetting why we are really here Jonouchi?" Anzu scolded him.

"Hey! That was a legit question! I wanna know what's gonna happen to us when we get up there!"

"What about the pod he used to transport himself? Can I see it?" Yugi asked, more seriously.

Mokuba dropped his gaze. "That might be a problem. You see, unlike the VR pods, where your mind is placed inside an avatar of your choice, this transfers your whole body as well as your mind. I pleaded with him not to go but he wouldn't listen..."

"Typical Kaiba," Anzu made a tutting sound and rolled her eyes.

"Anyway," Mokuba frowned, "Seto did not want anyone following him, so he self destructed the pod."

"What an arrogant ass hole! Doesn't he know that we wanna go see the Pharaoh too?!" Jonouchi snapped, his voice raising in pitch.

"It's not that," Mokuba defended. "He used the cube as a means to access the other dimensions physically. Without the cube, it's almost impossible to follow."

"Almost, but you still think I might be able to find him, don't you Mokuba?" Yugi questioned.

Mokuba sucked on his bottom lip and looked a little unsettled. "I'm not sure. I kind of needed your support and I hoped that because of your connection to Atem, you might still be able to communicate with him."

Yugi chewed his thumbnail. "I don't know if I can, the Puzzle is gone Mokuba. It was the last thing that tied him here, to this world... and me." His mouth twitched with sadness at that thought. He pushed the sadness away and his expression became thoughtful. If Kaiba had developed the technology to travel to the afterlife, then this was a game changer. It meant that they might all be able to see Atem again. The chance was too good to miss. "But I'm willing to try."

Worried about his true motivation for wanting to go, Anzu touched his arm. "I know you want to see him again Yugi – we all do. But what if it's too dangerous? Kaiba is already missing, and if you go after him, you might be lost too. I don't want to lose you."

Smiling weakly, Yugi reached out and brushed his fingertips over her cheek. "I won't take any risks. I promise." Anzu opened her mouth to respond but knew how stubborn he could be about changing his mind once he had made up his mind to do something, so she just sighed and gave him a worried smile.

"Okay, but be careful." She threw her arms around him and gave him a chaste kiss.

"I will." Embracing her, he prolonged the kiss. Even with Jonouchi and Mokuba watching, she did not resist and kissed him with unashamed love.

"Weheh! I knew there was something going on between you two!" Jonouchi grinned and fist pumped the air. Even Mokuba looked a little happier – he had always liked the idea that Anzu and Yugi should be together.

"Get that dirty grin off your face Jonouchi! That's exactly why we kept it secret." Anzu snapped.

"Hey! I think it's great that my two best friends are finally official," he stepped forward and embraced the both, patting them on the back. "I will make sure he comes back safe to ya. Heck, I will even help save Moneybags, for Mokuba's sake."

"You're not going too are you?!" Anzu gasped.

"Yeah, course I am. Ya didn't think I would let my buddy do this all on his own did ya?! And besides, if there's any chance we might see the Pharaoh again, I'm definitely going. I still gotta thank him for saving my life when I found myself in that freaky, disappearing world."

"Then I'm coming as well," Anzu stated, resolutely.

"Guys?!" Mokuba held his hands up. "I don't know if I can send all three of you! It will be hard enough just sending Yugi. And I can only send your minds as far as the multiverse. After that, you will have to navigate yourselves using the last known tracking details I have for Seto."

"Oh!" Jonouchi looked disappointed. "Well, I guess you had better show us to the space station anyway."

Mokuba gestured for them to follow. A retinal scan identified him and the doors to the ground control centre and space elevator opened. The four stepped inside.

A rather efficient sounding, computerised female voice sounded a security alert, warning of three unauthorised personnel. Mokuba gave the names of his three guests and ordered the computer to grant them access.

"You need to stand there." He gestured to a hexagonal plate on the floor. "Stand facing the screen and it will scan you and give you entry into the facility."

Jonouchi looked apprehensive about it but Yugi nodded and boldly stepped onto the plate. An infrared beam passed from the tip of his hair to his feet and then back up. The computerised voice confirmed his identity, blood type and even announced him medically fit, before issuing him with a biometric passport. Jonouchi and Anzu both followed.

Once inside the facility, Mokuba took them into the space elevator. There were three bursts of energy and they shot skywards. The sensation made them feel odd; it was like their skeleton had shot upwards leaving the rest behind on the ground floor and they were now racing to catch up with it.

They stepped out of the elevator and Jonouchi stumbled out, looking green.

"Don't you dare throw up on Kaiba's space station," Anzu growled.

Mokuba grabbed a sick bag from a hook on the wall and shoved it at him. Jonouchi promptly retched into it. "Man, that lunch cost me a mornings pay!"

"That will teach you for eating too much," Anzu scolded.

"It's okay. Quite a few people throw up when they get off. That's why we keep the sick bags," Mokuba explained.

"Ugh! Ya could a warned me."

"Are you okay now Jonouchi?" Yugi asked, concerned. Jonouchi nodded and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Yugi turned to Mokuba. "Would you like to show us what we need to do?"

Mokuba took them to a travelator which took them along one of the long tubes, linking the different parts of the space station.

"Wow! Look at the view! It's amazing," Anzu gasped.

"It is," Yugi agreed. Thanks to the Puzzle he had seen a lot of incredible things, but he had never been so high up into the earth's atmosphere before. Below him were the Islands of Japan, and beyond them the ocean and the other continents. He could see how Earth curved and he found himself wishing that Atem was here to see it with him.

::::::::::::

Two hours! Seto Kaiba had just about had enough of being treated like this. He had bathed and changed and then been left in his room with little to do but chew his nails. And even more annoyingly, his portable holographic transmitter system had packed up. Unless he could fix it – and without access to electricity and a computer, that looked unlikely – he would not be able to force the Pharaoh to duel him on his terms.

Fed up with sitting around, he decided to go and find the Pharaoh.

Throwing open the door, he stepped outside and found himself face to face with two burly guards, both carrying spears. It the afterlife was supposed to be a nirvana then why did everyone keep waving spears at him?

That's it for this chapter. Thank you for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Some drunken male bonding. There may be a bit of swearing in this chapter too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a cliffhanger. Lets hope they arrive safely!

Transcending Boundaries

Chapter 3.

The guards with spears did not intimidate Seto at all. If anything, they only served to fuel his irritation. "Am I a prisoner now, or something? I demand you let me pass!"

Relaxing their posture, the guards stepped aside. "You are to come with us. The Pharaoh is ready to receive you now."

"About time," Seto huffed, sarcastically.

Still unsure how to react to this future version of Priest Set, the guards glanced at one another for suggestions. One of the guards nodded his head and started walking, while the other gestured for Seto to follow the first guard. Seto gave the man a distainful look and followed the first guard along the cool, polished granite hallway and up the sweeping stone stairs, to another level. This entire area of the palace made up the Royal family's quarters.

At the top of the stairs, Seto was met by Siamun – as Atem's grandfather, Vizier, Siamun Muran also had his quarters there.

Seto had not noticed him in the throne room when he had first arrived because his face had been covered then, but the sight of the short, stocky, bearded old man without his veil was such a surprise that he almost fell backwards down the stairs again. "What the fff...?! I should have guessed that even Yugi's grandfather would show up!" Heaven forbid that Yugi's friends would all have past selves as well!

The old man chuckled, in a voice that sounded just like Sugoroku Mutou's annoying laugh. "The Pharaoh mentioned that I resembled Yugi's grandfather. He speaks very highly of his family and friends he made in the modern world. Although, quite why he would consider you as a friend is beyond me."

"I will take that as a compliment," Seto huffed.

Siamun Muran ignored his sarcasm and continued to introduce himself. "As well as Vizier to the Pharaoh, I am also the father of the Pharaohs' mother, which does indeed make me his grandfather. Since his return he has even started calling me Grandpa!" Seto could see the same affection in his smile for Atem, that Grandpa Mutou had for Yugi – he despised the loving family bond that he and Mokuba had been deprived of.

"If you have finished babbling old man? I would like to see the Pharaoh now, only I have already been kept waiting for too long."

"You are every bit as rude as The Pharaoh tells me." With a dismissive wave, he told Seto to follow him.

As they walked into the large, elaborately decorated entrance hall, Seto noticed that like the guards that had escorted him a moment ago, there were more guards armed with spears. So much for the peaceful paradise that was meant to be the afterlife!

Lining the walls, he noticed the intricately painted reliefs depicting the current dynasty of royals. On one side of the wall was an image of the former Pharaoh, with a young woman nursing the infant Atem sitting next to him. They were being worshipped by their subjects and tended by servants, while the Goddess Bastet watched over the woman and infant Atem. On the other side of the room, there was a whole wall dedicated to Atem. There were battle scenes, in which Atem appeared much taller than everyone else. Atem was even taller than Priest Set, fighting beside him!

Unable to stop himself snorting with with laughter, his face flushed when he realised that he was attracting a few strange looks from the guards, and also from a man in a blue, white and gold robe, sitting at a desk. The man frowned at him and he was immediately struck with the realisation that this man was The Dark Magician. Rolling his eyes at Seto in annoyance, the man went back to finish whatever he was writing on a piece of papyrus.

They came to a set of heavy wooden doors. Siamun stopped and asked the guards to knock on the doors for him. Seto was surprised when it was Atem himself who opened the door.

"Come in Kaiba! Sorry to keep you waiting. I was busy discussing your presence here with Mahado. He is worried that you will upset Maat."

"Well, pardon me if my presence here frightens you. It is intentional." With a superior expression, Seto strode into the Pharaohs' private chambers. Atem could not suppress a smirk at Kaiba's 'mightier than thou' attitude.

He dismissed Siamun and asked him to instruct the servants to bring them some wine, along with some cured meat, vegetables, bread and fresh fruit.

Seto reached the middle of the room and stopped in his tracks to do a double take. There, sitting on a bench seat looking at him eagerly, was a young woman who looked like the Mazaki girl. Except that her hair was much longer and braided. She also wore Kohl, drawn thickly around her bright blue eyes. The sight of her made his heart skip a beat. "Why am I so surprised? I should be used to the surprises by now!" He looked at her for several seconds before shaking his head in bemusement.

At first, Atem did not understand what he was going on about but quickly cottoned on when he saw the way Seto was looking at his consort. "Ah... This is Teana. I must confess, when I first arrived here, it was quite a surprise for me too – a rather pleasant one, I hasten to add," he smiled warmly and Seto noticed how his eyes lit up as he reached out and took the Mazaki lookalike by the hand.

Seto could think of 101 cruel or inappropriate remarks he would like to make but decided to behave with decorum. There were occasions when it was wise to keep his thoughts to himself. "It is an honour to meet you Teana." Figuring he should probably behave in a gentlemanly fashion, he bowed. Teana nodded her head and smiled.

"I have heard much about you Seto Kaiba. I hear you are a fierce rival of my husband. There are not many who can offer him much of a challenge when it comes to games."

Seto looked at her with a hint of a smirk. "Then it is a good job I am here, isn't it? I intend to defeat him and prove that I should be the King of Games."

"Come now Kaiba! Games are supposed to be enjoyed, not used as a means to humiliate a person. I am always telling my husband the same thing." She leaned against Atem and and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek. "I will be in my quarters. If I hear any drunken, childish squabbles or the sound of Senet boards being thrown across the room, I will personally bang your heads together and make you clear up the mess." It was said teasingly but Seto could tell that underneath the smile, she was actually being quite serious about it.

"There won't be," Atem reassured her. Smirking, he placed his arm around her waist and pulled her against him. "Would you like me to come to your bed, later tonight?" He whispered seductively.

She flicked him playfully on the nose in a manner that definitely did remind Seto of the bossy side of the Mazaki girl. "As long as you are not drunk and there are no signs of Ra on the horizon."

"Now that I can't promise." He let her go and she twirled playfully in his arms, before gracefully flowing towards the door that lead to her own private bed chambers, with all the poise of a ballerina.

The dancing gene must be strong, Seto concluded.

As soon as she had gone, he raised an amused eyebrow and glanced at Atem, who was blushing slightly. Their eyes met and Atem scowled. "Don't you dare say a word," he hissed at Seto, causing him to burst out laughing.

"Who would have thought that the mighty Atem would be a henpecked husband." Seto's laughter made Atem cringe. "And to think, I always thought you had a thing for your magicians," he chortled. "Does Yugi know about this?" He added with a hint of malice.

The remark angered Atem slightly. There were times when his nasty remarks and sarcasm hurt. "I am not henpecked. And no, Yugi does not know. Not all of my memories were returned to me until after I reached the afterlife."

Seto thought it quite odd that Atem had not remembered having a wife. In fact, it was actually kind of sad. Just like his own ancestor had been parted from Kisara, so he had been parted from Teana. Had her fate been as cruel as Kisara's? "Did Teana survive the battle?"

The compassion in Kaiba's voice made the corner of Atem's mouth twitched upwards into a rye smile. "Yes, she did. And I have Aknadin to thank for that!"

That comment came as quite a surprise since Aknadin was supposed to have been a monster. "Do you care to explain?"

Atem nodded. "After the death of my father, the sea people were becoming restless. So, when Aknadin suggested that I send Teana on a diplomatic visit to Tanis, I agreed. Teana's family hailed from Byblos and were highly regarded. My union with her was made as a means to quell any potential uprising from the northern tribes, but luckily, we were a good match. Aknadin had already sold his soul to create the Millennium items and I think he knew that the attack on the palace was imminent. Bakura was unaware of her whereabouts and Zorc had no knowledge of her either. By sending her away, Aknadin was assured of her safety. Once I was defeated and he became The High Priest of Darkness, he planned to further humiliate my name by taking her as his trophy. Thankfully, his evil plans backfired and Teana remained safe. What none of us knew at the time, was that Teana was carrying my child."

The revelation that Atem would have been a father was quite a shock to Seto, but apart from a slight arch of the brow, he kept his reaction in check. In truth, he was a little repulsed by Aknadin's desires and found his usual need to ridicule and humiliate, replaced by sadness that Atem's life had been so short and tragic. His rival may have been mature by modern standards, but he had still been a teenager; forced to face a destiny that had been mapped our for him the day his father allowed the wretched Millennium Items to be created.

Those items had dominated and dictated the lineage of those involved, from the very first day they were crafted, to the present day generation. His life, Yugi's life, Bakura's pitiful life, the Ishtar's miserable existence: Had their only purpose been to fulfil some pre-written, rotten destiny?

It now seemed laughable that the man he was actually jealous of had been condemned to three thousand years trapped inside a trinket, with no memories, and without even knowing he had a family. It was cruel beyond belief.

"What became of them?" He said, almost embarrassed by the emotion in his voice.

"When news of what had happened and of my sacrifice reached Teana, she returned to Byblos where she gave birth to my son, Heba. He grew to be a fine man and built a up an empire, forging new trade routes across the world."

"Have you met him since you've been here?"

All traces of sadness left him as Atem smiled warmly. "Yes, I have. He is not part of my afterlife but I have been able to meet him. If you're wondering? He has my hair." Atem started laughing and Seto could not resist joining him. Their laughter was soon interrupted by a knock on the door.

Atem's posture immediately straightened. "Enter!" He barked, with authority.

Seto was surprised how quickly Atem had composed himself.

Three servants entered, carrying jugs of wine and trays filled with plentiful amounts of food. Atem told them where to place the jugs and trays and thanked them. After they had gone, he turned to Seto. "Tuck in!" Lifting the cloth that was keeping the flies from the food, he moved his hand in a sweeping gesture over the fare on offer.

Upon seeing the meat dishes, bread, green beans, stuffed vegetables and some sort of thing that looked like squashed together beans, his eyes widened. "What is that?" He pointed at the squashed together beans.

"That is called Ta'amia – it's made with broad beans and spices. You may now it as falafel."

"I thought that was made with chickpeas?"

"Yes, it can be but in Ancient Egypt we tend to use broad beans as they are plentiful."

"Oh!" Seto had not imagined he would feel so hungry. His body was a little out of kilter after being thrown through dimensions, but the sight of the food and the aroma wafting up from the exquisitely decorated trays, made his tummy rumble and his mouth water. He grabbed a plate and started to load it with food.

"Would you like red or white wine?" Atem asked, pouring himself a large goblet of red.

Seto had just stuffed a falafel into his mouth and struggled to speak. Instead he nodded and pointed at the flagon of red that Atem was holding. Atem poured him a large goblet full and they sat down on the plush cushions, with a low table between them and proceeded to eat and drink.

Expecting it to taste like vinegar, Seto took a sip of his wine and was surprised to find how good it was.

"You did not expect a Royal Pharaoh to drink cheap muck did you?" Atem grinned.

"Don't think this will get you out of duelling me!" Seto abruptly told him, taking another gulp of his wine.

"We may know each other, but we have never socialised or played for fun. I thought that maybe I could teach you some of the games I grew up with rather than duel," Atem suggested. "It would be a shame for you not to learn how to play Senet, Mehen or Hounds and Jackals."

Seto shrugged and took another gulp of his wine, which was now starting to make him feel rather good. Smirking, Atem re-filled their cups.

"If you're afraid to duel me again Pharaoh, why don't you just say so?"

Atem raise an eyebrow. "I think both of us are afraid, Kaiba."

"Rubbish! I'm not afraid of anything. I'm certainly not afraid of you."

"You are afraid of losing to me again though, aren't you?"

Seto gave him an inquisitive stare. "Are you afraid of losing to me?"

Atem sighed and took a sip of wine. "I used to be afraid of losing to every opponent. So much so, I was prepared to kill."

Seto tensed at that comment. There had been time when he also had pushed people into such humiliating defeats that they had taken their lives. There was a time when he had actually been proud of himself for it. But not any more. "Are you still prepared to kill?"

Atem shook his head. "No!" He stated, adamantly. "I was wrong. As Pharaoh, I was calledup on to issue justice. But my time inside the puzzle blurred that line between justice and revenge. If it had not been for Yugi, I would have been as lost as Bakura."

"Bakura?! Isn't he Yugi's drippy friend?"

"I meant the spirit of the Thief Bakura. His soul was taken by Zorc and manipulated. He was beyond redemption."

"But you weren't?"

"Thanks to Yugi." He smiled reflectively.

"You miss him, don't you?"

"Of course I do! We are like brothers who shared the same womb."

Seto dipped his bread into some sauce and took a big bite. "Twins," he mumbled. Atem nodded and raised his goblet of wine.

"To my twin. Long may he prosper!" They crashed goblets, slopping their wine.

"He's doing pretty well without you, from what I have seen," Seto added, making Atem smile. He did not doubt that Yugi would do well.

As soon as they had finished eating, Atem called for the servants to take away the empty dishes and asked them to bring more wine.

He then went to a cupboard and pulled out the game boards. "I suggest we play Hounds and Jackals first." He placed a board that was on short legs and had a beautifully painted palm tree carved into it. "Each player has five game pieces and it is basically a race to get round the board."

"Sounds a bit too simple to me," Seto pulled a face.

"There's a bit more to it than that, as you will see."

When Atem won the game, Seto snorted. "It is purely a game of luck."

"Now that you know what to do, we will play best of three?"

"Why not!" Seto gulped down his wine and then picked up the jug for a refill. "Hmph! Empty."

"The servants are bringing more of the red."

Seto shook his head. "I would like to try the white next." He got up and tottered over to the table to fetch the pitcher of white wine still sat there untouched. It was not as god as the red but they were that drunk now that they did not really care.

Hounds and Jackals ended with Atem winning two and Seto one.

"I might have guessh...ed the mighty Paa Pharaoh would have luck on hissh siide," was the the only form of slightly slurred congratulation Seto was prepared to offer. "Whatshh.. the next...?" Shit! He could see two Atem's now and one of them was moving round the other.

"You...'re dru..unk?" Atem raised a hand and waved it at him in rather exaggerated movements. Unable to focus on the Seto's opposite, he felt himself swaying as he stood. "We should play Senet!" Atem turned around to reach for the board but missed it and ended up falling onto the floor. He tried to stand and pushed himself onto one knee, while the other leg refused to co-operate, leaving him with his backside in the air. Seto caught a glimpse of the Pharaohs' ass, which was thankfully covered by his undergarment, and burst out laughing.

Scowling, Atem grasped the senet board and pushed himself back onto his haunches. "Wahso funny?"

"Your arse!" Seto was laughing so hard that he toppled over onto his side. Atem was too drunk to understand the comment, but he did find it somewhat disturbing to see the frosty CEO blind drunk and laughing.

"Arse... I mean ARE we gonna play or not...?" he tried to place the Senet board on the table but instead dropped it onto the table. It landed with an almighty clatter and the drawer fell out and broke, sending the pieces scattering everywhere. "Oh fuck!" He swore loudly and started crawling around on the floor, trying to pick the pieces up.

Seto attempted to help, but suddenly the urge to vomit overtook him. He just about made it to the balcony, before hurling over the side.

Inside her chambers, Teana could hear the two men socialising and playing games. She could tell by their voices that they were drunk, but came to the conclusion that it was not really her place to interfere. They would probably make themselves ill and then require some help getting into bed safely, later.

She waited until it all went quiet, before opening the door and tiptoeing into her husband's chambers to find them both passed out on the cushions, snoring.

::::::::::::

Mokuba stopped at a charred panel on the wall. "There was another section through here but it was destroyed when Seto blasted himself into the dimensional vortex. It caused a breach and this whole section de-pressurised. Had we lost the station, it would have cost the company and investors millions. Thankfully, our engineers were able to stop the station crashing into the ground and have now repaired it."

Anzu shook her head sadly. "I find it astonishing that Kaiba is prepared to risk everything, just to duel Atem!"

"Maybe there's more too it," Jonouchi sniggered. "Maybe Moneybags has the hots for the Pharaoh."

"Don't be so absurd!" Anzu was quick to scold him.   
Yugi frowned at him. "I don't think we should make those sort of assumptions Jonouchi."

"Well, I can't see why anyone would wanna go to all them lengths just for a game!"

"But it is more than just a game, you should know that Jonouchi," Yugi quietly explained. "It is about pride."

"Then I say bollocks to pride! Why doesn't the selfish bastard think of anyone but himself?" Jonouchi bit back.

Mokuba shrugged sadly. "It's the way he has been since we were adopted."

They continued silently, until they reached another sealed door. Mokuba punched in the code and the seal on the door hissed as the vacuum lock released and the door slid open. "If you still want to go ahead, I can launch your consciousness into the Duel Link Dimension. It is still in the experimental stages but I can assure you it's safe."

The three friends glanced nervously at one another. "Just how safe do you mean by safe?" Anzu knew that Yugi would take the risk, however large or small, and it worried her.

Mokuba wanted to reassure them but could not be completely certain about what they would encounter because they would be pushing the boundaries of what was considered attainable. He tried to explain the logic behind Seto's latest invention the best he could, by telling them that After Atem left, Seto couldn't stop thinking about all the weird stuff that kept happening. He refused to believe in anything supernatural and needed to explore the possibility of other dimensions actually being accessible using science.

"Has it been properly tested?" Yugi queried. He doubted that it had.

Mokuba looked nervous. "He had some degree of success with test subjects, but ran into problems when he tried to push the boundaries and reach the afterlife. That time, I was barely able to bring his mind back before it was crushed by unknown forces. If you don't want to risk it, I will understand."

"But if Yugi is in danger, you can bring him back, can't you?" Anzu fretted.

"Yes, I can monitor your brain waves from here." He gestured to the the control panel.

Yugi picked up the strange egg shaped dome and examined it. "I presume this is how my brain waves are channelled?"

"Yes. If you sit in one of those gaming chairs. They have a built in heart and blood pressure monitor. If at any time you reach critical, I will call your mind back to your body."

Jonouchi quickly spotted that there were several egg shaped helmets on a shelf and that there were six prototype chairs. "I'm going too." Yugi opened his mind to protest but Jonouchi cut him off. "I ain't letting you go into danger on your own Yuge."

"If you're going, then so am I," Anzu boldly stated.

Mokuba looked concerned. "I don't know if I can monitor all three of you safely. I was kind of hoping one of you would stay here and keep me company."

"Ain't you got staff that can help?" Jonouchi asked.

"Yes, but I haven't told them Seto is missing. I don't want anyone knowing. That's why there are no staff on the station today; I sent them all home." Mokuba knew that it was pointless to argue with them about who was going. Experience had taught him that Yugi and his friends always stuck together and watched out for each other. Sighing, he powered up the chairs.

Yugi gave Anzu's hand a reassuring squeeze, before sitting down and placing the strange helmet over his head. He slotted his hands into the gloves fixed to the armrests and felt an automatic harness slide over his shoulders and rest lightly on his chest.

Mokuba brought up the programme on his monitor and began the countdown. "Can you all hear me?" He spoke into the microphone. They all confirmed that they could. "Okay, good. Now, you might feel a weird sensation like sea sickness. Don't worry, it should pass. But if any of you seem too distressed, I will bring you back."

Since they had all been subjected to virtual worlds before, they already had some idea of what to expect and gave the affirmative.

Inside each of their helmets, a strange pattern of green, three dimensional criss-crossed lines appeared. A panel lit up on the right hand side of their vision, showing pulse rate, body temperature and immanent threats.

At the consul, Mokuba brought up an image of each of them and typed in the instructions.

Choose your avatar popped up on their screens. All three selected themselves as their avatar.   
Choose outfit: Yugi went for navy blue with magenta, Jonouchi selected sky blue with dark green and Anzu selected pink with pale blue.

Yugi could feel strange feeling of pressure starting to build behind his visual cortex, along with a tingling sensation in the back of his neck. The green lines on the screen suddenly changed from being a two dimensional image in front of him, to an image that began to surround him. He became aware that he was now standing on a grid, with grid patterns all around him. He turned around to see Anzu standing beside him, just a few feet away, wearing a figure hugging pink body glove, with luminous blue seams running up the arms, across the shoulders, down each side of her body and down the outside of each leg, where they then seemed to blend into the darker pink ankle boots.

On her left arm was a white and pink duel disk, and on her head she sported a pink headset.

Yugi looked down at himself to see that he was in a navy blue bodysuit, with luminous magenta panels. His duel disk was white and blue. "Hey Anzu!" He gave her a wave. She waved nervously back at him.

"You look good in that outfit Yugi," she nervously giggled. He suddenly felt self conscious.

"Where's Jonouchi?" Anzu asked.

Yugi suddenly became worried. "I don't know!" But seconds later, he materialized. His sky blue body suit had dark green glowing seams and his duel disk was pale blue with dark green.

"Whoo! That felt a bit strange!" He grinned.

Yugi looked down at his duel disk, which had a larger screen than just the usual life-point counter and score built into it. In his earpiece, he heard Mokuba say. "Ready guys? I'm going to input the coordinates now. When you receive them. You must all hit enter at the same time.

They all nodded and confirmed that they had heard him. The trio moved closer to each other and lifted their arms as the coordinates came in. "Ready?" Yugi looked between Anzu and Jonouchi. They nodded and all three put their fingers on the touch at the same time and pressed.

It was like being sucked up by a vacuum cleaner. Clouds, darkness, dust and stars all went whooshing by. It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time and they thought it would never end.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two more old favourites make an appearance in this chapter. See if you can guess who.  
> There may also be some swearing in this chapter.

Transcending Boundaries

Chapter 4.

The next morning, Seto Kaiba woke up to find himself laying on the large cushions he had been sitting on during their evening of drunken stupidity. He had the most horrible taste in his mouth and it felt as though his tongue had glued itself to the roof of his mouth, and it was several minutes before he could bring himself to properly open his eyes or attempt movement.

He noticed that someone had placed a blanket over him to stop him getting cold during the chill of the early morning.

He sat up slowly and felt his brain slosh. It hurt to open his eyes and when he did, he felt his skull splitting in two. What on earth had he been thinking? He hated socialising with anyone other than Mokuba. And he seldom bothered to drink alcohol – he liked to keep his wits about him.

Bringing his hands up to his face, he felt the dried vomit on his chin and almost threw up again at the thought that he had must have made a complete and utter dick of himself. "Ugh... someone bring me some painkillers," he rasped, rather horsely.

As his vision started to right itself, he noticed the oh so stoic Pharaoh, laying face down on the cushion opposite. A blanket had also been placed over him and there were Senet pieces scattered on the floor around him and he even had one piece in his hair. Seto hoped that when he woke up, His Royal Highness might feel worse than he did.

"Good morning Kaiba." An all too cheery Teana entered the chambers. "I hope you are not feeling too hungover this morning?"

"I'm fine," he coughed. "I need some water."

"Here," she picked up a jug and poured some into a cup. "It is safe to drink."

The thought that the water in Ancient Egypt was not fit to drink had not even occurred to him. He guessed that since this was the afterlife, the water was crystal clear and pure.

Thanking her, he gulped it down and then held his cup out for a refill. "I don't suppose you have toothpaste here, do you?"

She gave him a puzzled look. "Toothpaste? What is that?"

"My mouth tastes like a horses rear. I need to clean my mouth and teeth."

"Ah... yes. We have a mixture of herbs and salt that will clean your teeth and make your breath fresh. You may wish to bathe too as you have vomit on yourself."

Looking down at his chest and his arm, he felt ashamed.

They suddenly heard a low, grumbling sound as Atem started to stir. "Oh... my head." Ungraciously, struggling to his knees, Atem touched his head and then his stomach. "Excuse me!" Retching, he staggered behind the screen, where his royal commode was kept, and brought up the contents of his stomach.

The grin that formed on Seto's face could not have been larger.

::::::::::::

The strange sensation finally ceased and Yugi found himself floating in what he could only describe as a void. Around him, he could only see a deep and endless darkness. As his eyes adjusted, he became aware of small patches of mist, like smoky swirls, dotted about. Some were fairly close, while others seemed miles away and were mere pinpricks. The closest was just a few feet in front of him and when he reached out to touch it his hand passed through it. To his astonishment, his hand appeared again, next to his arm, with his fingers pointing straight at him wriggling and flexing. It looked just like his hand had been snapped off at the wrist and poked back through the mist to taunt him. Gasping, he quickly withdrew his arm and was relived to see his hand was still attached. It then occurred to him that this body was only a holographic avatar and not his real body – it did not make it any less alarming though.

"Yugi?" Anzu appeared next to him, with one hand resting on the back of his shoulders. "What is that?!" He turned his head to look at her and noticed that she was staring in awe at the swirling, smoky mist he had just put his hand through.

"I'm not quite sure. It's probably some sort of gateway to another realm."

Jonouchi had also just arrived and was eyeing the smoky swirl. "I guess we gotta go through that to get to Kaiba," he reasoned.

"Except that this happens." Yugi steeled himself and put his hand in again. Behind him, Anzu gave a little squeal when his hand came back out. He pulled his arm out again to reveal his hand had not been torn off.

Anzu took hold of his hand to reassure herself that it was not damaged. "Don't do that to us Yugi! It's creepy."

"Yeah, Yugi. This place is freaky enough without you trying to freak us out even more!"

"Sorry Jonouchi. I was just demonstrating. If this is a portal, or gateway, then we need to find out how to get through. I'm willing to bet that if you jumped in, it would just spit you straight out again."

"There's several of them!" Anzu observed, looking all around her. "They must all lead to different worlds and realities!"

They were all interrupted by static and then the grainy, broken up voice of Mokuba coming through their earpieces. "T... Portals... Seto reported.. found... could not... cube … key.."

"Mokuba! We couldn't quite get all of that!" Anzu replied.

"You are breaking up! Can you repeat?" Yugi asked clearly, just in case the transmission was poor at Mokuba's end too.

"Hang... guys.. I have just adjusted the frequency. Is that better?"

"Yeah... loud and clear!" Jonouchi nodded.

"I don't have a visual on you guys. Can you see smoky swirls?"

"Yes! But we can't pass through them," Yugi told him.

"Seto created his own dimension called Duel Links as a place that people from anywhere in the world could meet up to duel. During tests, he smashed his way out of the game to where you are now. We came to the conclusion that it is a reality that exists between all realities; including life and death. The Ancient Egyptians referred to it as Duat. Seto got into difficulties the first time he went, but he has since upgraded the programming of the suits. The ones you are wearing, should be safer than the original prototypes."

"Is it possible to enter the other dimensions Mokuba?" Yugi asked.

"That is where it becomes difficult. Seto was able to adapt the Cube, which Diva left behind. I was kinda hoping you guys might think of something."

"So, we don't have a plan." The frustration in Jonouchi's voice was evident.

"Unless..." Yugi placed his thumb against his bottom lip, thoughtfully. They were wearing duel disks so there had to be a way of using their monsters to punch through to one of the other dimensions. But if they attacked the portal, what would happen? Would it be guarded?

Before he had chance to suggest a plan of action, Jonouchi launched an attack.

"I gotta plan! Red Eyes Black Dragon! Blast a hole right through this... swirly mist thing!"

"Jonouchi! No! We don't know what will happen!" Anzu yelled, but it was too late.

Red Eyes Black Dragon's fireball blasted right into the heart of the mist. For a moment it seemed to dissipate, but then it swirled back together to form an angry spinning ball. "W... what's it doing?" Anzu murmured, clinging to Yugi.

"Oh, shit! I think we upset it!" Jonouchi mumbled.

"You mean you upset it!" Anzu retorted.

In their ears they could hear a worried Mokuba asking what was going on. Why were their heart rates suddenly elevated?

Readying himself, Yugi activated his holographic duel disk. A split second later, the swirling mass heaved inwards slightly, and then The Red Eyes Black Dragon's attack came hurtling back out, straight at them.

"Narrghhhh!" Jonouchi screamed and flailed about in mid-air as he tried to run out of the way, while Anzu scrunched her eyes shut and prepared herself to be incinerated.

Having faced down far worse than this during his many battles with Atem, and more recently on his own against Aigami, only Yugi remained stoic. "I activate Mirror force!" He yelled. The fireball hit the mirror and bounced right back into the swirling mass. Ready for another response, he followed it up by summoned Dark Magician Girl and equipped her with Magic Cylinder. No attack came but the mass did appear to be weaker in the centre. "If we combine our attacks and try again Jonouchi, it might work."

Nodding, Jonouchi ordered his dragon to attack simultaneously with Yugi's magician. Dark Magician Girl's attack hit a spilt second before Red Eyes. There was a rumbling sound and they all tensed nervously as they waited. Dark Magician Girl's attack shot back out at them. It was intercepted by Magic Cylinder and fired back in again. Red Eyes Black Dragon's attack did not come back out.

"Look! Something is happening!" Anzu gasped as the swirling mist darkened in the centre and became concaved. "It appears to be changing into a portal!"

Jonnouchi punched his fist in the air triumphantly. "Yeah... I knew Red Eyes could do it!"

"Don't talk rubbish!" Anzu responded. "You nearly killed us! If it hadn't been for Yugi..."

"Maybe warn us next time you decide to attack without thinking Jonouchi," Yugi interjected.

Jonouchi looked a bit abashed. "I did the right thing though?"

"You did okay, but we should have planned it a bit better first," Yugi replied, diplomatically.

"Do you think it's safe to enter?" Anzu asked.

"Hell no! Course it ain't! But we're going in anyway, right Yuge?" Jonouchi grinned

"Guys!" Mokuba shouted into their ear pieces. "The portal you've opened is unstable. I don't know..." Before he had even finished his sentence, Jonouchi was already leaping through the opening, "..where it leads...!" He finished.

"Jonouchi?! No!" Yugi yelled. Charging forward, he tried to grab his friend to pull him back but it seemed that the gravitational pull inside the portal was too strong and he was sucked in as well.

Anzu's hands flew to cover her mouth and she gasped. Mokuba's anxious voice screamed in her ear. "What's happening?"

"They went in the portal!"

"I've lost contact with them! Whatever you do, don't..." Mokuba's plea was cut short by static and a horrible, blood curdling screech.

When she turned around to see three demonic looking Harpie Ladies bearing down on her, Anzu let out a blood curdling screech of her own. The Harpies job was to help protect the dimensions from fracturing, but Anzu did not know that and no idea where they had come from and why they were suddenly attacking her.

In the control room, Mokuba noticed that the sensors in her duel disk were picking up unknown readings. The screeches and Anzu's scream nearly deafened him. "I'm bringing you back, okay?" He yelled.

In her heightened state of fear, Anzu barely heard him. Her immediate instinct was to run to Yugi and Jonouchi. Without thinking, she threw herself into the portal.

::::::::::::

Both keen to Bathe and freshen themselves up, Atem's personal servants assisted the hungover pair to Atem's private bath – which was more like a swimming pool – and assisted them in removing their vomit splashed, clothing.

Atem seemed completely unashamed to have someone else undress him, but Seto cringed when soft female hands deftly removed his robe.

Before entering the water, the two female servants wiped Seto's naked skin with cloths that smelled of fresh mint and lemon. It felt so embarrassing to be standing just a few feet away from his rival, both of them as naked as the day they were born. The women were wiping his skin without so much as batting an eye lid, and Seto was thankful that their touching him did not result in him getting an erection! That was probably one of the only advantages of his hangover.

He risked a glance at Atem, careful to not look any lower than his chest, to see that the Pharaoh was standing there without any sort of expression on his face.

Remembering his history lessons, Seto recalled that the Ancient Egyptians did not have the hang-ups about nudity in the same way that modern people did. And Royalty often had servants who assisted them with washing and dressing. It was completely normal to them.

Trying to distract himself, Seto decided to think of this as being similar to a traditional Japanese Sento. He had been to business meetings where multi million Yen contracts had been discussed while bathing. His stepfather even used to sit and smoke his disgusting cigar in the Sento. The smoke had mingled with the heat, salts and minerals, stinging everyone's eyes and making them cough. Smoking was actually prohibited, but since no one would dare to challenge Gozoburo Kaiba, he got away with it.

In no time at all, the two women had finished wiping his skin clean and he was snapped from his thoughts by Atem talking to him. "Kaiba! Are you feeling okay?"

"What?! Oh! Just..." he waved a dismissive hand. "Never mind."

Believing his hangover to be the cause of Seto's glazed expression, Atem chuckled. "I bet you did not expect to come here and get drunk, vomit from my balcony, fall asleep in my quarters and then bathe in my private pool, did you?"

"You saying it, makes it sound even stranger than it does in my head." He followed Atem into the water. It was not as warm as he thought it would be and he hissed in surprise.

Atem just laughed at him and submerged himself under the surface, before pushing off the side and swimming across to the opposite end of the pool.

Seto took a deep breath and kicked off. He counted, and it only took him eight strokes to swim to the other side but it was still nice. The fresh water was actually good now that he was in and it certainly helped clear the head. He joined Atem at the other end. "It must take a lot of servants to fill your swimming pool?!"

"Not at all! My father had the pool built by diverting water from the Nile. It flows in through a covered channel. There is a sluice that prevents fish and less desirable creatures from getting in."

"I hate giving praise, but I have to admit, you Egyptians were pretty ingenious. Your feats of engineering are quite impressive."

Atem quirked an eyebrow at him. "Praise indeed. Thank you Kaiba."

Seto snorted. "Don't think that all this bromance stuff is going to get you off the hook. I'm still going to duel you and win." He took a breath and ducked under the water. Pushing off the side of the pool, he swam underwater, back to the other side. When he reached the steps, he noticed that the servants had left robes for them.

After a few more lengths of the pool, he climbed up the steps and hurriedly pulled the robe over his head. The robe was like two sheets of soft, woven cotton stitched together, leaving a hole for you to slip over your head and two slits for your arms to go through. He was thankful that it reached his knees and therefore covered his dignity. Atem followed him out of the bath and a servant rushed forward to help him but he waved the servant away. "I am okay Sahala, I will dress myself this morning."

"Aren't you supposed to have been up at the crack of dawn to welcome Ra, or some pointless ritual like that?" Seto mocked.

"Judging by how high Ra is now, I would say we slept through it this morning."

Seto glanced at his watch. "It is nearly eleven in the morning. I am surprised the Gods have not struck you down with syphilis or something."

Atem just laughed. "I am not the only Pharaoh here. My father or maybe Set will have welcomed Ra. And just for the record," he added, "none of the women in my harem have syphilis."

Seto nearly spat his teeth out. "You have a whole harem?"

"I do. Not that I have the need. Teana more than satisfies me." A small, devious smirk crossed his features. "If you feel the need, you may visit the Royal harem while you are here. All of the women there are attractive."

Seto tried not to react like a child who was about to be let loose in a toy shop. "Does Yugi know that you have whores?"

"The women in the Royal Harem are not whores!" He corrected, sharply. "They look after the small children, provide massage therapy and they also sing and dance to provide entertainment at functions. Yugi and I shared many memories. The only thing that he does not know about me is that Teana is my consort, or that I was going to be a father."

Seto noticed that there was a hint of emotion in his voice as he referred to Teana and the son who's birth he had not lived to witness. Seto seldom had any sympathy for anyone, but even he had to admit Atem's life had been short and his sacrifice had been selfless and somewhat sad. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

"Don't be," Atem reached up and placed a hand on Seto's shoulder. "It was my destiny. I have had three millennia to come to terms with it. And anyway, if I had not sacrificed myself, I would never have tasted the modern world, met Yugi and made such wonderful friends."

The corner of Seto's mouth twitched into a rye smirk. "And you and I would never had developed our bitter rivalry."

Atem studied him with a serious expression. "Why does it have to be bitter?"

Seto did not have chance to answer before Teana entered the area where they were dressing. "The servants have brought some food to help settle your stomachs."

"Thank you." Atem fastened the belt around the waist of his white kilt and adjusted it so that it flattened over his abdomen neatly. He then placed a Wesekh collar, inlaid with jewels, around his neck. Not used to having to fasten it himself, he cursed. Teana rolled her eyes and stepped forward to help him. Seto noticed how her hands lovingly caressed his shoulders as she did so.

Once his collar was fastened, Atem turned to face her. "I apologise for our behaviour last night."

"No need to apologise. It was good to see you both getting on and having fun. Would you like me to sort out your crown?"

Nodding, he picked it up and handed it to her. She carefully placed it on his head, ensuring that the wings of Ra blended with his hair and that the Eye of Wadjet rested on his forehead. He turned around so that she could tie it at the back of his head. Turning back to face her again, she made a minor adjustment to straighten it a bit.

"There, handsome as ever." She kissed him on the lips.

"Pass my wristbands Kaiba!" It was said as an order. There was no please and Seto scowled. Glancing at the table, right next to him, he grunted. No one made demands of Seto Kaiba.

"Get them yourself. I'm going to get some food." He stomped past the young royals with is nose in the air.

"You should have him executed," Teana remarked, jokingly.

With a smirk, Atem folded his arms across his chest with and watched as Seto stomped off towards the private dining room. "Please don't give me ideas like that Teana."

Nudging him playfully, Teana looped her arm through his and dragged him after Seto.

::::::::::::

Rubbing his shoulder and hip, Jonouchi staggered to his feet. "Ow, that hurt!"

Kneeling next to him, Yugi was rubbing his sore elbow. "Tell me about it! That was not a soft landing."

Jonouchi raked his hand through the coarse black sand and frowned. "Where do you think we are Yuge?" This place made the hairs on his neck stand on end.

Peering through the inky darkness and suppressing the shiver that ran down his spine, Yugi stood up to join him. "I dunno! But it certainly doesn't look like Atem's afterlife. Can you feel it?" He frowned. "It's like we're surrounded by suffocating evil. I think this place is dangerous."

"Yeah, I'm feeling it too. I sure hope Anzu didn't follow us."

"I can't see her, so hopefully she didn't. Come on, we need to find a way out of here before she starts to worry." Not wishing to stay in this place a moment longer than they had to, they started to frantically search for an exit portal. But after several minutes of searching, they began to realise that there was no way out. They were lost in an endless cloying darkness. It felt morbid and depressing, and they quickly started to feel a sense of hopelessness.

"I think we might be in some sort of underworld, that is made up of negativity and evil. Can you feel it draining you?" Said Yugi.

"Yeah..." Jonouchi nodded. "All I can think about is the bad stuff I went through. None of the nice thoughts are coming through. I hate myself like I did when I was mean to you. If I had a gun, I would probably shoot myself. That's how crap I feel."

"Me too," Yugi nodded. The feeling of sadness and isolation he had felt when Jonouchi bullied him was threatening to overwhelm him. He was starting to think that Jonouchi hated him and was only friends with him because he was famous. He was disturbed by the desire to slam a fist into Jonouchi's jaw.

Thankfully, they were both snapped out of their negativity by a sudden, blood curdling scream.

::::::::::::

Anzu landed with a hard thud, on a substance that reminded her of wet shingle as the tide washed over it. Except that the shingle was crushed bones and the water looked and smelled like blood. She scrambled away from the blood sea's edge and looked around for Yugi and Jonouchi, but there was no sign of either of them.

Out of nowhere she heard a very familiar voice. "Hello my dear!"

She looked up in horror, to see the sinister face of Marik's dark half leering at her.

She screamed.

Pulling themselves together, Yugi and Jonouchi gasped at the same time, but were unsure of which direction her voice had come from.

"Anzu! Where are you?!" Yugi yelled.

Anzu heard Yugi calling her and screamed his name, begging him to come quickly.

"That way!" Jonouchi pointed his finger and started to run towards her voice. Yugi followed.

But after sprinting about three hundred metres, the two boys stopped. Gasping for breath, they looked around for her. Their concern grew when they could not see her.

"Anzu! Call out again?" Yugi yelled in desperation.

"Yugi! Jonouchi! Hurry! It's Marik's evil half."

Her voice now sounded as if it was coming from where they had just run from. How was that even possible?!

Yugi let out a rare expletive.

Jonouchi let out an even more explicit string of expletives when he spotted someone he really did not want to see walking towards them; wearing a tattered red cloak and insane expression.

"Bakura!" Yugi snarled, defensively.

The infamous thief sneered, revealing a set of sharp white teeth. "Well, well, look who has dropped in for a visit. The vessel and his idiotic sidekick..."

Jonouchi very quickly and aggressively adopted his fighting stance. "Who the hell are you calling an idiot? Zorc's puppet!" Bakura's lips noticeably curled into a snarl at that retort.

"What have you done with Anzu?" Yugi demanded.

"Your attempts at threatening me are pointless, I could crush you like a bug if I felt like it. And I haven't done anything to your little whore. She's over here."

Yugi and Jonouchi turned in the direction he was pointing but could not see any sign of her.

Bakura laughed. "You will see them when I say you can." He barged past them and took half a dozen steps.

As Yugi and Jonouchi followed, a gloomy mist seemed to part and they were able to see Marik terrorising Anzu. He had her upper arm in a vice like grip with one hand and the other holding her throat, forcing her to look at him. "Do you not find me attractive my dear? You let my pathetic host inside your body, why not let me?"

His long, almost lizard like tongue poked out of his mouth, millimetres from her face. Anzu scrunched her face up in disgust as he flicked it over her mouth, like a dog licking at her face.

"Get away from her!" Yugi yelled possessively, grabbing Yami Marik by the collar and ripping him away from her.

"Yugi! Thank god you're here." Anzu threw her arms around him and clung to him.

"I won't let him hurt you," he promised, as he held her in his arms.

Far from intimidated, Yami Marik found Yugi's threats amusing. "Well isn't that a surprise! The Pharaohs' little vessel has grown some balls," Yami Marik snarled mockingly.

Fists balled threateningly, Jonouchi stood between his friends and the two evil beings. "Whad'ya two dog turds want?"

Bakura shrugged while Yami Marik sneered at them. After a short pause, Bakura eventually spat out, "We don't want anything, but they do." He pointed at the blood sea, which now appeared to be bubbling at Jonouchi's feet.

Yugi and Anzu both gasped at the sight, and Jonouchi let out an unmanly squeal as he leaped backwards, away from the sea. He inched over to where Yugi and Anzu were clinging to each other and gripped Yugi's sleeve for solidarity and comfort.

Not knowing what he should do, Yugi stood frozen to the spot. His friends were expecting him to come up with a plan but he didn't have one. The disturbing sight of body parts continually breaking the surface of the blood sea, before being sucked back under was enough to make him feel sick and the negativity from this place was draining his will to fight. The bony shingle on the shore rattled and moaned as it was pushed back and forth with the tide. Yugi could swear it was laughing at him and calling him a weakling.

After all the things he had encountered over the last two and a half years, Jonouchi thought he had overcome his fear of ghosts, graveyards and ghouls, but no, he was terrified. This place was doing his head in! "W... what are they?" He pointed at the screaming, heaving nightmare, soupy ocean.

Bakura and Yami Marik were enjoying this.

"They are our family," Bakura snarled. "Every single one of them was once a living, breathing human. Most of them lived miserable, pox-ridden lives and hoped that one day they would enjoy the peace and prosperity of the afterlife. Sadly, the Gods deemed them unworthy of redemption. Instead, they have been condemned to an eternity of nothingness and despair, until eventually, every last drop of their humanity is absorbed. When that occurs, their souls will cease to exist."

"That's horrible! What did they do to deserve that?" Anzu shuddered.

"Do?!" Bakura raised an eyebrow. "They did nothing wrong!" Bakura's face twitched as he ran his tongue over his lips as it relishing a taste. And then he smirked. "Well, maybe not wrong by our standards."

Beside him, Yami Marik's left eye bulged until it popped out onto his cheek. He scooped it into the palm of his hand and shoved it back into its socket.

Yugi felt Jonouchi's weight fall against him as he almost fainted at the sight of the horror show in front of him. Anzu shut her eyes tight and pressed her face into Yugi's neck to block out the revolting sight.

Yugi nudged Jonouchi to get him to pull himself together. "Don't be fooled by their theatrics. They want us to be scared."

The word 'scared' pulled Jonouchi out of his terror. No one ever called him a scare-de-cat! "Yeah, that's the spirit Yuge. Don't let em scare ya! I'm here to protect everyone." Anzu shot a quick glance at Yugi and he winked at her as Jonouchi swallowed his fear and threatened the two evil spirits.

"First I'm gonna deal with you two losers and then I'm gonna get us outta here!" He raised his duel disk. "I knew there was a reason why we have these. Are you ready Yuge?"

"You bet I am." He primed his duel disk and stepped up beside Jonouchi.

Bakura burst out laughing. "You're both pathetic! We don't even have duel disks! And even if we did there is no point in fighting you. All we need to do is stand here taunting you until those fancy suits you're wearing run out of juice." The amused look on his faced became sinister. "And then my family will eat your souls," he snarled.

The comment immediately prompted them to look at the life support counters on their wrists. Mokuba had told them the avatars should be able to sustain them for up to ten hours but they were already down to two. It seemed that the power required to resist the evil and protect their souls was draining the avatars more quickly than anticipated.

Unless they found a way out soon, they would become part of that blood soup.

Things are not looking good for our intrepid heroes. Will they find a way to beat their foes and escape?

Find out next chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are not looking good for our intrepid heroes. Will they find a way to beat their foes and escape?
> 
> Find out next chapter.
> 
> As always, I would love a review or two. So please let me know if you like/no like.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: Male nudity - you are allowed to picture their delicious bods in your heads ;-) lol. There could be a bit of swearing too.
> 
> Disclaimer: A quick reminder that I do not own Yugioh.

Transcending Boundaries

Chapter 5

The feeling of ice sliding down his back, made Atem drop the mug of sweet herbal tea he was holding. The clay mug smashed on the polished, white granite floor causing the brew – which he had been assured by Isis was the perfect cure for a hangover – to form a brown/green puddle on the floor. For a few seconds, he just stood, staring at it.

Teana gasped with concern. "Are you alright my love?! I will call a servant to clean it up."

Atem put his hand up. "I am fine. It is just... I don't know," he frowned as something inside his chest clenched. It was the same feeling he used to get when he was trapped inside the Puzzle and Yugi was in danger.

He stumbled backwards and sat down on the bench seat. "It's Yugi! I.. I can feel him. I think he is somewhere within Duat. He may be in danger!"

"Yugi!" Seto was confused. "What the hell is he doing here? And what the hell is Duat?"

Atem frowned at him. "Duat, or, Underworld as you probably know it, is the place that exists between the world of the living and the afterlife. Any soul deemed unworthy of the afterlife is sent to a place within Duat called the Shadow Realm: It is a place of eternal darkness and torture. I don't know why Yugi would go there."

Seto ignored the worried look on Atem's face and rolled his eyes. "Well there's a surprise, Yugi has been judged as evil and has been sent to the Shadow Realm."

Atem shot him a glare. "Don't you dare make remarks like that!" He spat through gritted teeth. "We can't leave him there. I have to go and find him."

If Seto was taken aback by Atem's anger at him, he did not show it. However, he did not retort with another one of his caustic remarks.

Teana sat down and placed a loving hand on her husband's shoulder. "But it is not safe for you to go into the Shadow Realm. Are you forgetting the evil souls you have had sent there?"

Atem turned his head to give her a sad, desperate look. "But I have to... I don't know how, or why he is there, but I can't leave him at the mercy of evil."

Feeling guilty was a foreign sensation to Seto, but for some reason he felt his gut clench at the sudden realisation that it was possibly his fault that Yugi was stuck in the Shadow realm. Mokuba had probably been worried about him being gone for too long and the one person he would go to for help would be Yugi. "If you're going to look for Yugi, then I'm coming with you."

"Are you sure? The darkness that I banished from your own heart is there. It may try to seek you out."

"Then I will be ready. It will be no match for the man I am now," Seto snorted. "And besides, it is probably my fault that Muto was stupid enough to try and follow me here."

Atem took a deep breath and let it out thoughtfully. "Okay. But I must warn you: the Shadow Realm is not a very pleasant experience."

"I have no doubt experienced worse," Seto huffed, remembering the misery that Gozaburo had put him through, the coma Yugi had placed him in and also of his time floating inside that godawful bubble towards the jaws of the Leviathan.

"I know that I cannot stop either of you from going. But, please be careful," Teana pleaded.

"We will." Atem placed a reassuring hand on her cheek. "I will take Mahad with me as well. He possesses Heka that will be strong enough to protect us."

"I will need my suit and the cube," Seto informed him. "It should be able to keep my soul from being consumed by whatever monsters we might encounter. I will be back as quickly as I can." He hurried out of Atem's chambers and told the guard to escort him back to his room.

Atem ordered another guard to fetch Mahad to his chambers.

With some urgency, Atem hurried into his bedchamber and replaced his flimsy sandals with some sturdy leather shoes. He then reached into a carved wooden chest, took out his Diadank and strapped it onto his left wrist.

When he stepped back out into his reception room, Mahad was just arriving, and had a concerned expression on his face. "My Pharaoh," he immediately lowered himself onto his right knee, with his left foot pointing forward. "You requested to see me?"

"I did." Atem rolled his eyes. "And Mahad! How many times have I told you not to be so formal? You are my friend, there is no need to behave as though you are a servant."

"I am sorry my Phar... Atem." He stood up and brushed his tunic down with the palms of his hands. "And how many times have I said that during my training I was taught to show respect to the Pharaoh? I guess that old habits die hard." The two men chuckled for a brief moment, before turning serious again.

"Thank you for sparing me your time Mahad, I know you are supposed to be teaching class this morning. How are the new students doing, by the way?"

Mahad shook his head and huffed. Why did people who had not possessed a single ounce of heka during their life time, suddenly think they could become master magicians in death? "I'm afraid it is not easy to teach them. They lack even the basic understanding of how to use their heka. I have left them in Mana's capable hands," He looked concerned as he said it.

Atem raised an eyebrow. "I am sure Mana will do just fine," he responded, with a hint of irony. "Anyway, you are probably keen to know why I summoned you to my chambers? I am afraid that Yugi somehow entered Duat and has become trapped in the Shadow Realm. As soon as Seto Kaiba returns, we shall go and rescue him."

Mahad had doubts about Atem going but was not sure he should tell his Pharaoh, and friend, that he thought he should stay here. Atem was stubborn and had always been impulsive when it came to throwing himself into danger to save someone else. And with the bond that he shared with Yugi, there was no way he would let someone else go and save him on his behalf. "Very well Pharaoh. But you should allow me to perform a spell that will protect you from the malicious spirits that will be after your soul, and probably mine as well."

Moments later, Seto Kaiba came striding back in, dressed in his midnight blue skin suit and wielding the cube.

"You will not need the Cube," Mahad informed him. "If it were to fall into the wrong hands, it could be used to re-awaken Zorc's evil and inflict terrible suffering on the living world. I suggest that you leave it here and I will transport us."

Seto merely snorted. Were these people that naïve that they thought the world was not already saturated with evil and suffering? "Very well."

Atem held out his hand. "The cube will be safe in my chambers."

Seto slapped the cube into his hand. "If it goes missing, I will hold you responsible." Without replying, Atem took the cube into his private bed chamber and placed it inside a mystical box, that would shield it from detection.

He returned to where Mahad and Seto were waiting. Both had their arms folded and were turned slightly away from each other so that they could avoid having to interact."If you two are ready, then we should go now. We have already wasted too much time."

Nodding, Mahad stepped forward and asked the pair to position themselves behind him. He held his staff out and started muttering an ancient spell. Seto could feel the hairs on his neck begin to stand on end as the crackle of magic started to swirl around them. The magic quickly reformed around the staff that Mahad was holding and when he twirled it – with the speed of an aeroplane propeller, the magic started to form a spinning vortex in front of them.

"It is ready. We must step through quickly as it will collapse behind us," he told them.

Atem nodded and moved forward first. Seto hurried to ensure he went with him. The moment they were in, Mahad followed and then lowered his staff to close the portal.

::::::::::::

Apart from the three soulless bodies seated in the life supporting chairs behind him in the control room, Mokuba was all alone. The silence inside the space station was deafening and it amplified the beating of their hearts on the monitors.

What had happened to them? Seto had previously told him that there were monsters in the place that existed between their world and the next. He had heard Anzu scream at something, and he had also heard an inhuman screeching sound moments before their transmissions stopped. Did that mean something terrible had attacked them and...? No, they could not be dead! If their souls were to die, their hearts would stop beating and their brains would die.

But... they were on life support right now. So, what would happen if their life support was switched off? Would their hearts stop beating?

He shuddered. "No!" He said out loud, to break the silence. Their brains were still giving readings that showed they were active. There had to be hope. He just wished that someone was here to advise him of what he should do.

He got out of his chair and walked over to where the trio were seated.

"Yugi, Anzu, Jonouchi; I'm sorry I dragged you into this," he muttered sadly, looking at their expressionless, peaceful faces.

Suddenly, from the consul on the opposite side of the room, Seto's monitor started transmitting again. He ran back over to the monitor to check that he was not imagining it. The steady pulsing of his heart beat and brain waves confirmed that he was not. He was still out of voice communication range but he was okay.

However, nearly ten minutes later his hopes were quickly dashed when the transmissions abruptly stopped again.

He was unaware that Seto had stepped through the portal and into the Shadow Realm.

::::::::::::

They stepped out into a world of oppressive darkness. The moment they arrived, Seto could feel it trying to invade his suit and claim his soul. The suit offered adequate protection, but he could still feel the misery and despair that was clawing at him. He hoped that Mokuba had been able to equip Muto with one of the prototype avatars that, if he was lucky, might protect him.

The portal Mahad had created using his heka closed behind them quickly, leaving them alone and at the mercy of this hostile place.

Atem shivered and shot a worried glance at Mahad. As if reading his thoughts, Mahad responded. "The protective shell I have created around us will keep the evil from tearing our souls from our bodies and consuming us. But we will not be able to resist indefinitely. We should hurry." He closed his eyes in order to concentrate.

"This is no time to fall asleep!" Seto mocked.

Atem glared at him. "This is not a joke Kaiba. Yugi's life is in danger."

"Hmph! Lighten up Your Majesty! Do you think I don't want to find him as much as you do? Both you and Yugi still owe me a duel."

"Selfish as ever," Atem hissed as he also closed his eyes to concentrate. If he was close to Yugi, their link should be able to connect them. Unfortunately, the shadows were blocking him and all he could feel was the the throbbing sensation of hatred, murderous intent and despair reaching for him from within the darkness.

"I'm detecting many anguished souls, but I can't be sure if any belong to Yugi," Mahad sighed. "It could be a trick in order to try and trap us."

"Is it that strong that it can block even your heka Mahad?" Atem asked, full of concern.

"I am afraid that it might be, but I will not give up. We should keep moving."

When Seto checked the monitor on his arm, he let out a triumphant laugh. "Ha! That's why I don't rely on magic. According to my scientific readings, they are that way." He pointed in the opposite direction from where they were walking.

"They?!" Atem queried.

"That's what I said," Seto replied, bluntly. "Two... no! Judging by the readings there are three people wearing the same portable life support units that I'm wearing. I am also detecting two, very strong, inhuman readings that are with them."

"Then we must hurry!" Fearing that his friends were in danger, Atem ran in the direction Seto had just pointed.

"Pharaoh?!" Mahad, hurried after him. "Stop! We must not rush into a trap!"

"Screw any trap! The quicker we find them, the quicker we can all get home," Atem responded sharply.

On this occasion, Seto agreed with Atem. They would get nowhere standing around being over cautious. They needed to be proactive: Find Muto and his friends, and get the heck out of this hell hole.

::::::::::::

Beside Jonouchi, Yugi squared his shoulders to adopt his duelling stance. The improvement in his posture when he duelled, always made him appear taller and more intimidating. "Don't listen to him Jonouchi!" Yugi growled. "He is just trying to intimidate us into giving up." He raised his arm, ready to activate his holographic duel disk.

Jonouchi nodded. "The pair of you can make all the threats ya like. But we ain't giving in until our life counters hit zero." He tapped the screen on his wrist, to activate his virtual duel disk. Nothing happened, taking him by surprise. He glanced at Yugi for advice.

Yugi was busy tapping at his own screen. His was not working either. He looked at Jonouchi with a concerned expression and shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe it's this place."

Opposite them, Bakura continued to goad them. "What are you waiting for? Go ahead and attack us! We're already dead so it won't hurt too much, if that is what's holding you back."

Anzu stepped up beside her two friends and glared at the pair of blonde demons. "You two are full of hot air... Well, we're not scared, so I suggest you let us go or we will attack!" She shouted, in the hope that it would buy Yugi enough time to come up with a solution.

"Yuge?" Jonouchi hissed through gritted teeth, "Whada we do?

Always a quick thinker, Yugi came up with a response. "You want us to attack, don't you? If we do you will merely dissolve into the shadows, unharmed. Activating our duel disks will use up our energy even faster. We won't take the bait."

"Very good little Yugi!" Yami Marik sneered. "But we're not going to let you go and we already know that you can't attack us."

Beside him, Bakura chuckled. "That useless Kaiba Corp. technology won't activate here because it can't connect to the duel server."

"Yeah, well, we will still find a way to defeat you and get out of here," Jonouchi threatened, but his threat lacked conviction.

Yami Marik burst out laughing. His head lolled back in such an exaggerated way that it looked as though his neck might snap.

Bakura also let out a sinister cackle. "Good luck finding a way out! If we knew how to escape this place, don't you think we would a1ready be long gone?"

"I thought you were supposed to be the King of Thieves Bakura! Aren't you supposed to be able to walk through walls?" Yugi goaded.

Anzu immediately understood what her boyfriend was trying to do. He was trying to trick Bakura into demonstrating his abilities. "Yeah," she chided, "If you can walk through walls, then why don't you show us how it's done?"

He did not take the bait. He just tipped his head back again and laughed even louder.

"Do you think I haven't tried little dancer? The Pharaoh took my special ability from me when he destroyed my Diabound. Without my Ka, I am just as much a prisoner here as you are my dear. And soon the three of you will be joining us as permanent residents!"

"If the Shadows consumes souls and feeds them to Zork, then how come you two are not part of that soup yet?" Yugi demanded, pointing to the writhing blood sea.

"We are," Bakura licked his lips in a rather seductive and sadistic way. "But we held Millennium Items. Our souls are far stronger than those of mere humans. You were chosen by the Millennium Puzzle Yugi, which means your soul is even more powerful. You could be Ruler of this place if you wish. Just think Yugi? All that power at your fingertips. Can you feel it calling to you? Isn't it tempting? Join with us and together we will revive Zorc."

Frowning, Yugi glanced at the evil, blood soup. It was bubbling like a cauldron threatening to boil over. Wispy tendrils were reaching for them, as if beckoning them to succumb. But the moment the tendrils reached them, their avatars repelled them, keeping them safe for now. But it was only a matter of time before each of them gave in.

Taking a shaky breath, Yugi felt a sense of helplessness take over. Bakura and Yami Marik were right. He was The King of Games. He could rule over the Shadow Realm and save himself and his two best friends from being tortured and consumed by evil. All he needed to do was type in the six digit code that would deactivate his avatar and it would all be over.

Anzu noticed how Yugi's eyes flickered red as he gazed at the bubbling soup. The soup appeared to be compelling him. Was she losing him? "Don't listen to them Yugi!" She cried out, reaching for him.

But he pushed her away. "Get away from me," he hissed. "They are right. I can be King of this place."

"Yugi! Please... listen to me?" She reached for him again. "The evil is corrupting your mind!"

With his left hand, he took her by the left hand as well and looked down at their wristbands. "Let's put in the code that will release us, together. If you join with me, I can save you. I will be King and you will be my Queen."

Anzu tried to pull away from his grip but he was too strong. "Yugi! No! What's happening to you? You're hurting me!" His eyes were now the colour of blood and it frightened her.

"Snap out of it man!" Jonouch took Yugi by the shoulder and tried to get him to let go of Anzu and face him. But Yugi uncharacteristically lashed out with his right elbow, catching Jonouchi in the side of the head. Taken by surprise, Jonouchi was stunned by the blow and crumpled to the ground.

"That's it Yugi! Embrace the darkness in your heart," Yami Marik cooed, with sadistic delight.

Yugi's eyes bore into Anzu's, "Type in your code," he hissed.

Unable to resist the evil swirling in those compelling red eyes of her usually gentle boyfriend, her hand shakily hovered over the touchpad and brought up the passcode. "That's right," Bakura hissed, leaning in close. "Type in your codes. Both together..."

Yugi put the first number in and Anzu copied him by using her own unique pin code.

With his vision swirling, Jonouchi tried to stand up. He had to stop them but concussion was leaving him disorientated and weak. A tendril of evil swirled around him, coiling like a snake about to strike. In his semi conscious state, his avatar flickered, leaving him vulnerable. "No... I won't give in," he stammered, trying to swat the tendril away half heartedly. This place was absorbing his fighting spirit. For the first time in his life, he wanted to stop fighting and throw in the towel.

When they got to the third number, Yugi hesitated. This was wrong; so very wrong... He could stop this... if only he had the strength of will to do so.

"What's wrong Yugi?" Anzu cooed, her mind now being overwhelmed by the darkness invading her heart and manipulating her mind. "I want to be your Queen! For ever and ever... so do it!" She snapped.

::::::::::::

Atem skidded to a halt. He should have reached them by now but there was no sign of them. He was beginning to panic. "Yugi?" He bellowed in desperation.

Seto stopped next to him. "Muto! Where are you?" He bellowed. "You still owe me a duel!"

Even with his powerful heka, Mahad was starting to feel the draining effect this place had on a human soul. "The darkness is playing tricks on us. You should know this more than anyone my Pharaoh. You once commanded Shadows Games, remember? The Shadow Realm knows you have returned and is messing with your mind. Fight back! You must use your third eye to see. I can protect us but I cannot control Shadows. Only you can."

"You mean..." Atem gasped. "Penalty Game? But I... I thought I no longer had that ability!" He scrunched his eyes shut but found he could no longer reach that part of his mind. "Something's blocking me," he growled, "I can't beat it."

The frustration was starting to kill Seto. Or was it this place? Whatever it was, he did not like it here. Somewhere, lurking in these Shadows was an old familiar feeling; it reminded him of when he was a young teen and Gozaburo would stand over him with a big stick, threatening to beat him if he lost concentration or made a mistake with the maths questions he had been set. To protect himself, he had built a wall around his heart that had been torn down when Yami Yugi mind-crushed him. Since then, he had been spending years slowly re-building himself into what he considered to be a more considerate, sociable man. But now his efforts seemed pointless and futile. He was starting to hate people again. "Mighty pathetic God you are Atem," he mocked, "I don't know why they gave you the job! You're just a weak and feeble boy! You can't even defeat your own self doubt!"

"Fuck you Kaiba!" Atem was ready to punch the arrogant CEO.

"Please!" Mahado stepped between them. "My protective spell is starting to erode. The evil within the Shadow Realm is beginning to eat at you both. It wants you to fight each other so that it can feed on the darkness growing in your hearts. You must not let it win."

Seto shivered. He could feel him somewhere within this realm. It was weak and pitiful, but what was left of Gozaburo's soul was here, and it was waiting for him. His own darkness was here too; biding its time until it would be re-united with its former host. It was calling to him; willing him to release his soul from protection and join with it. The power and strength they would wield as one being would be formidable. He truly believed that it would be strong enough to defeat both Atem and Yugi together.

He gritted his teeth and fought the urge to give in. It was all lies. The darkness was messing with him; it wanted him to believe. Without even realising he was doing so, he started to growl under his breath. It was low and feral.

Mahad was quick to notice his struggles. "Are you feeling okay Kaiba?" He tried to focus more of his protective heka onto the struggling man.

Realising that he could not waste any more time, Atem closed his eyes and willed himself to regain control of his emotions. As a prisoner inside the Puzzle for three millennia, he had been subjected to the destructive force of darkness and despair. His name had been taken from him and removed from history; to be used as the key to lock away Zorc. His soul had been fragmented and left to the mercy of the Shadows. When Yugi had completed the Puzzle and released him from his prison, he had been feral, vengeful and unhinged. A weaker vessel would have buckled under his control – as Ryou had under the control of the Thief. But Yugi's soul had reached out and calmed him. Thanks to Yugi's friendship and understanding, he had been able to purge himself of the darkness in his heart.

They were two souls made from one, and when their souls merged they possessed the same power as The Gods that bore them. Atem had been stronger than the Shadow Realm before and he was going to show the Darkness that it was still no match for him.

Power and energy began building within him. The Eye of Horus suddenly appeared on his forehead and his whole body appeared to glow. The darkness flinched as it tried to touch him and recoiled backwards.

"Begone!" He held his hand out to Seto and the darkness was thrown away from him.

Feeling the cloying pressure that was surrounding him dissipate, Seto heaved a heavy sigh of relief. "That was nothing I couldn't deal with on my own," he weakly protested. "But thank you anyway."

Atem did not acknowledge him. Without Yugi to balance him, it took most of his concentration just to hold his power and keep it reached out with his mind. 'Aibou! Can you hear me?'

::::::::::::

This was not how it was meant to end!

Yugi shut his eyes and tried to regain control of his thoughts. Why had he really agreed to find Kaiba? He already knew the answer: he wanted to see Atem again – all three of them did. If he was to give in now, they would all die and their wish would never be granted. He could not let his friends down like this. They were relying on him.

"I will .. not .. give in to the darkness in my heart..." he hissed. "We have to..." He grimaced as the evil shadows started to inflict pain on him for fighting back. "Mou Hitori No Boku?" He breathed out the name he used to give the Pharaoh when their souls were together.

In that same moment, Yugi suddenly felt a soft, comforting presence touch his soul. It was calling him – 'Aibou.' His eyes widened as the feeling of his Other Self gave him new vigour. "Atem!"

"He can't help you little vessel," Yami Marik snarled. "The darkness has surrounded you. Nothing can reach through... Let the Shadows take you."

He snapped himself out of the trance he had almost been lured into and grabbed Anzu's wrist to prevent her inputting the final two numbers. She let out an angry yelp but he did not let go.

Turning his gaze on Bakura and Yami Marik, he glared at them. "You're wrong! We will never give in to the darkness!" As he spoke, the Eye of Horus appeared on his forehead. The light he emitted seemed to repel the darkness from around them. Bakura and Yami Marik flinched. Cowering, they backed away from him.

"Atem! I can feel you close to me." Yugi spoke, without words.

"I can sense you too. Stay there, we're coming to find you." Using his power to manipulate the shadows, Atem willed the three of them to Yugi's side.

"Begone spawn of Zorc!" Atem bellowed at Bakura and Yami Marik.

At his instruction, Mahad raised his sceptre and hit them both with Dark Burning Attack. The pair screamed and vanished back into the darkness.

"Are you all okay?" Atem asked, concerned. The eye on his forehead glowing brightly, to keep the darkness at bay.

"Atem! Oh my god! Is is really you?" Anzu stammered in awe as she clutched her bruised wrist. Her knees almost buckled and she had to hold onto Yugi for support.

"It is," Yugi confirmed, with a relieved smile. The eye that was still glowing on his forehead was making him feel extremely light headed. When they shared a body and his other Self had tapped into this power, he had pushed into his Soul Room, where he was protected. He was not used to seeing the whole universe through the eye of a God. Our galaxy and the dimensions within, existed harmoniously as they circled around The Sun – or Ra, as the Ancient Egyptians had named it. It was almost too much for a mere mortal man to comprehend.

Realising that Yugi was experiencing the universe through the eyes of a God, Atem reached out for him and told him to release the pull that the magic of the universe was having on him.

Yugi felt Atem's arms holding him and Anzu upright and focussed on using him as his anchor and the eye on his head faded, bringing him back to reality.

Anzu was still overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of Atem. Only moments ago, all had seemed lost.

But then Yugi had become a beacon of light and suddenly Atem was here with them. In her final moments, was she imagining all this? She could no longer tell what was real and what was her imagination. "What is happening Yugi? Is Atem really here?"

"I am here Anzu. You are safe now." His deep voice made her heard miss a beat. It really was Him.

"Thank you Atem," she muttered, breathlessly.

Relieved that they were saved, Yugi quickly regained his composure. With his eyes now able to focus on what was happening around him, Yugi grew concerned for Jonouchi. His best friend was still on his hands and knees and he vaguely remembered hitting him really hard.

"Jonouchi! Are you alright? I'm sorry!"

His friend held his hand up. "Yeah, I'm cool. Just a bit like... what the fuck hell happened? First you punch me, then some snake thing tried to crawl up my nose and I was gonna let it!"

"We should not linger in this place. Mahad, can you reopen a portal to take us back?" Atem was starting to feel the strain of his exertion and wobbled a little. He gripped onto Yugi to help steady himself.

"Yes my Pharaoh." Without hesitating further, Mahad spun his sceptre and opened a portal. Atem gestured to Yugi to take a rather overcome Anzu through first.

"Are you sure? You don't look so good. You go first," Yugi told him.

Atem shook his head and smirked at Yugi. "You should know me better than that Aibou."

Tutting, Yugi held Anzu tightly by the hand as they ran into the portal.

"Kaiba, You and Jonouchi next," Atem ordered.

Seto looked down at Jonouchi, who was still on his knees, struggling to clear his head. "Get up Mutt! Unless you wish to be left behind?" He smirked.

"Watch it Moneybags. Before I kick you through, butt first!" Seto just rolled his eyes and offered Jonouchi his hand. Surprised, Jonouchi took the offered hand and allowed Seto to pull him to his feet.

As soon as he was upright, he realised that Yugi must have given him concussion because everything lurched and he almost vomited on Kaiba's arm.

"Don't you dare!" Seto pushed Jonouchi into the portal and then ran in after him.

As soon as they had all gone, Atem staggered slightly and had to use Mahad as support.

"We must go now. I can see the darkness is hurting you," said a concerned Mahad.

"I agree." Atem nodded and Mahad pulled him into the portal, closing it behind them so that the shadows could not follow.

Okay, so that's everyone saved from the Shadow Realm. You will find out if they all got back safely in the next chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading..  
> Please let me know what you think.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter sees them landing in some awkward situations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Some swearing and possibly a bit of smut. But nothing too bad.

Transcending Boundaries

Chapter 6

Anzu and Yugi landed with a stumble, before rolling into a pile of something squishy, slightly warm and... there was a very strong smell of something nasty.

The sensation of falling through the portal had left them feeling somewhat disorientated and confused by their new surroundings and it took them several moments to comprehend exactly where they had landed.

Anzu had not realised that she was laying on top of Yugi and was squashing him into whatever it was they had landed in until she felt him moving underneath her, frantically trying to push her off so that he could get up.

Trying to gather her senses, she muttered that she was sorry and shifted back onto her haunches. That was when it finally dawned on her. Leaping to her feet, she let out a squeal of repugnance. They appeared to be at one end of a stable, where all the dung and mucky straw had been scraped into a pile ready to be used to nourish the vegetable gardens.

"Ugh! Yuk!" Her hands flew to cover her face without thinking and she let out another squeal when she realised that she had just slapped dung on her face.

Still sitting in the dung, Yugi lifted his right arm and let out a disgusted grunt. "Ugh! Shit!" He was covered up to his elbow in horse poo. "What the hell Mahad?!" He was not happy.

Grimacing, cursing and trying not to barf, they tried to scrape off the unpleasant straw and dung that still clung to them with a reed brush they found propped up against the wall.

Behind them, they suddenly heard a worried voice. "My Pharaoh! Queen Teana!" They spun round to see a stable hand bowing before them. "Forgive me," the man muttered. "I did not know you were going riding today. I will have your horses prepared immediately." The confused man was not daring to make eye contact and had his head bowed low.

"He thinks you're Atem!" Anzu mouthed at Yugi. "But who's Teana?!"

"I don't know," Yugi shrugged, "But we should play along. Clearing his throat, he addressed the man in a voice that made him sound so like Atem it sent shivers down Anzu's spine. "That is okay. We will not be requiring our horses. We were merely passing. Erm... You may leave us."

"Yes Pharaoh." With his eyes still looking down at the floor, the man backed away and hurried back outside. It was not his place to question why the Pharaoh and his consort would cover themselves in dung.

Yugi and Anzu followed him into the bright sunlight.

"Well, I think it is safe to assume we are no longer in the Shadow Realm," Anzu observed.

"No, we ended up in something far worse!" Yugi managed a smirk, but he still felt irritable and disgusting.

Anzu would have laughed at his joke if they were not in such a mess.

"But why would Mahad send us to the stables?" She questioned.

Yugi waved his soled hand about as if the air would clean it. "And land us in a pile of dung!" Atem had shared with Yugi, that growing up, he and his friends loved to play tricks on each other. If it was a prank, it was in poor taste.

Close by, a group of workers were sneaking glances in their direction. Why were the Royal couple covered in muck and dressed in such a strange way?

A woman with long silver/blonde hair approached them. She was dressed in much finer clothing than they remembered from Atem's memory. But they still recognised her as Kisara. "Pharaoh! Teana! What happened to you? You are covered in horse dung...!" She turned to a woman who was carrying a basket full of loaves for the staff who worked at the stables, afternoon meal. "Maya? May I have the cloth covering your loaves?" Without question, the woman smiled and handed her the cloth.

Thanking her, Kisara took it and handed it to Yugi to wipe his hands. "Did you fall from your horse?"

Being a gentleman, he passed the cloth to Anzu. "Not exactly," Yugi told Kisara, "In fact I'm not... " He stopped mid sentence, when a stout man suddenly came scurrying over to them looking rather annoyed. "There you are! Mahad left Mana in charge and one of the students has set fire to the classroom! She said that you called Mahad away on some errand. And myself and Shada have been left to clear up the mess!"

Yugi was so surprised that he had to do a double take. "Grandpa!"

"You should not refer to me as Grandpa in front of others. How many times do I need to remind you that I am Siamun, your Vizier. And why are you wearing the same ridiculous clothing that the rude young man who arrived yesterday was wearing?"

"You see, I am not..."

"No arguments young man. You may be the Pharaoh, but that does not mean you can do as you please. Follow me? You should get cleaned up before anyone else sees what a mess you are in."

"Yes Gran... I mean Siamun." Yugi rolled his eyes and glanced at Anzu, who was looking completely confused by it all.

Hopefully, Grandpa Siamun will lead them to Atem's chambers where they would find the others.

Instead, he took them behind the stables; to where there were some buckets, that had been filled with water for the stable hands to wash themselves with.

"You can rinse off the worst of that dung here so that you don't leave a trail of it through the palace."

"We're not in that much mess!" Yugi grumbled, checking his feet to find that his shoes were plastered in dung. He scrunched up his nose in revulsion.

Keen to rinse off the foul smelling dung, they quickly grabbed the rags hanging on a wooden rail and dipped them into one of the buckets, and rinsed themselves off as best they could.

When they had finished, Yugi turned to Siamun. "Okay, do you think we could, maybe go to my quarters now?"

Siamun's eyes bore into them sceptically. "I will take you the Royal Chambers, but you can stop pretending to be Pharaoh Atem and Teana. I have already guessed that you are from his future."

The pair grinned sheepishly and apologised.

::::::::::::

Jonouchi landed on an elaborately woven rug. His limbs had somehow become tangled with Kaiba's and the pair of them were laying in an undignified heap. He let out a yelp and tried to push Kaiba away from him.

"Get your hands off me Mutt..." Seto growled in disgust and stood up. As soon as he did, he heard giggling behind him. He was also aware of the strong smell of perfumed oils.

Looking round, he noticed the rich, ruby red furnishings. Two women were sitting near the window, sewing what appeared to be gold threat into some expensive silk fabric. At the arrival of the two strangers, the women stopped what they were doing and stared at them in astonishment.

Another woman approached them. She was wearing a simple dress that revealed quite a lot of flesh and she was also wearing lots of jewellery. The woman appeared to be slightly older than the others and was probably in charge. Three much younger women stood behind her and were all dressed identically. They were giggling at the two young men who had dropped in out of nowhere and Seto concluded that they were probably dancers.

Rubbing his head, Jonouchi was slower to stand. But when he looked around, his eyes nearly popped out of his head with excitement. Suddenly, the splitting headache caused by his concussion had vanished and he let out an appreciative whistle. They had landed slap bang in the middle of the palace harem.

"Is this Mahad's idea of a joke?!" Seto grumbled.

"Joke or no joke. I ain't in no hurry to leave," Jonouchi grinned. "Don't you know what this place is Kaiba? It's the Royal Harem! These lovely ladies are here to pleasure us!"

"Of course I know that, you idiot! And they are not here for the pleasure of a moron like you. Touch them and you will wind up in the dungeons."

"Hey! Atem's my buddy! He would never chuck me in the dungeons. And besides, he can't keep all these beauties happy at the same time. I'm sure he wouldn't mind lending one or two to me. What d'ya say ladies?"

"Guards!" The one who appeared to be in charge shouted. "Remove these uninvited men from our chambers!"

A burly eunuch appeared, ready to escort them away.

The elder lady addressed Seto. "With respect Lord Set, your servant's course behaviour is offensive. Please see to it he is made aware that we are not here to provide sexual gratification for palace staff. We are professional, well respected women."

"Apologies on behalf of my idiot servant. I will see to it that he is publicly humiliated." Seto bowed and gestured for the eunuch to show them out.

"Hey! I ain't your servant!" Jonouchi complained.

"Just play along with it." Seto hissed.

Huffing irritably, Jonouchi reluctantly trudged out into the hallway. "Man, that wasn't fair," he pouted. "Tempting us like that and then saying no."

"Get over it," Seto hissed. "Just grow up and show some respect to the people here. You are in a different world than the one you are used to and I don't expect to have to baby you."

"Back off you jerk. I ain't stupid."

"Then stop behaving as if you are."

An awkward silence followed as the unlikely duo trudged along the corridor with the eunuch close behind, until Seto got his bearings and was able to point them in the direction that would lead them to Atem's quarters.

He dismissed the eunuch, who went back to his guard duties.

"Man... the size of that poor bastard though?" Jonouchi said, after he had left them. "All muscles and no balls. Must be crap being in charge of all those lovely ladies and unable to enjoy himself."

Even Seto had to snicker at Jonouchi's comment. "Makes my eyes water thinking about it," he responded.

"Yeah, mine too. Geez! Can you imagine something so barbaric as chopping a guys balls off? Just so he can guard women!"

"No, I can't. But I suppose that is the sort of thing they did in ancient times."

"Man, my testicles are trying to hide at the mere thought," Jonouchi grimaced, clutching his crotch.

"Will you stop playing with yourself in public!" Seto rolled his eyes, but could sympathise because his own testicles were cringing. "We've reached the Pharaohs' quarters."

"Hey! Do you just realise something Kaiba? We just had a normal conversation!" Jonouchi grinned.

"I would hardly call talking about castration, normal." Seto raised an amused eyebrow and hammered on the door.

He pushed it open to find no sign of the others.

::::::::::::

Atem found himself sitting on a clump of Irises in the middle of the flower bed.

Nearby, two members of the gardening staff were busy pruning and watering and were startled and confused by his sudden appearance. One of them, almost poured water over him. "Do not be alarmed. Get back to your work. It is just a spell that didn't quite work as it should have." On his command, they nodded and continued on with their work.

Beside him, Mahad was very apologetic. "Forgive me my Pharaoh! But in my haste to get us home, I did not stabilize the point of exit from the portal."

"Please, don't apologise my friend. At least you got us out of the Shadow Realm. My only concern is where did the others end up?"

"That I cannot answer. They could be anywhere within the palace grounds. We should probably move before someone thinks we have lost our minds." He stood up and brushed the dirt off his robe.

When Atem stood up and surveyed the plants on which they had landed, he groaned. "Teana won't be pleased when she finds out that I crushed her favourite flowers."

"Just be thankful we did not land in the rose garden," Mahad added, with a hint of mirth.

"Given what Teana will do to me, the rose thorns might be preferable." He tried to arrange the bent flower stems so that they were upright again, but they were so badly broken that they immediately flopped back over again, making him snarl at them.

"Allow me to fix things," Mahad pointed his sceptre and cast a spell over the forlorn plants. New stems and flowers erupted and the long slender leaves righted themselves once more, until the clump was showing even more blooms than before Atem had landed on it.

Atem gave a satisfied nod. "Thank you Mahad. Now that is sorted, we should find the others. I can only hope that they didn't end up in a worse situation than we did!"

"We should check your chambers first. Hopefully, they will think to make their way there," Mahad reasoned. Atem nodded in agreement.

"My only concern is that someone will mistake Yugi and Anzu for myself and Teana. I hope they don't get arrested as impostors," he worried.

They hurried up the steps that lead them away from the gardens, and onto a walkway that was lined with stone pillars. From here, they were just a short distance from Atem's chambers.

The walkway they were on, ran the length of the palace grounds. It started at the ornamental gardens they had just come from and passed the kitchens and the vegetable and herb garden, until it reached the stables at the far end.

"You said yourself that Yugi is resourceful and clever." Mahad offered, as he opened the door that would lead them along another passageway behind the throne room and up some steps, to Atem's chambers.

Just as they were about to go through the door, they heard a voice calling to them from the far end of the walkway. "Pharaoh!" Yugi's voice echoed loudly as it bounced off the stone pillars.

At the sound of Yugi's voice, Atem spun round, full of relief. "Yugi! Anzu!" He waved to acknowledge that he had heard them.

Beaming, they waved back and started running towards him. Atem spotted the short figure of Siamun, tripping over his long robe as he tried to scurry after them. They soon left him behind.

Without any hesitation, Yugi and Anzu threw themselves into Atem's open arms and the three embraced. "Man! Are we relieved to see you both made it back safely!" Yugi beamed. "Have you seem Jonouchi or Kaiba?"

The trio parted. Atem shook his head. "We have not seen them. But I we were just discussing where you might have ended up!" Atem scrunched his nose and sniffed Yugi's hair. "I think I can guess."

"Oh dear! I am sorry," Mahad felt embarrassed. "I didn't mean for you to end up in the stables."

"Don't apologise Mahad! At least you saved us from Bakura and Marik's dark half, " said Yugi, humorlessly.

"And we managed to clean off most of it." Anzu sniffed her arm and frowned. "We still stink though, don't we?" She couldn't wait to have a nice hot bath. Did they have hot baths in Ancient Egypt?

"At least not too many people saw us..." Yugi began.

"You mean, people saw you?!" Atem was mortified.

"Only a couple of stable hands and Kisara. Oh! And a woman carrying bread. She was very kind and gave me a cloth to wipe my arm... She thought I was you."

Yugi could not hide his amusement when Atem rolled his eyes and muttered something about his reputation being ruined.

Keen to know who Teana was, Anzu was just about to enquire, when an out of breath Siamun finally approached them. "Pharaoh?!" He looked between Yugi and Atem. Their likeness was incredible; they certainly could pass for identical twins. But now that the two were standing side by side, he could see the subtle differences in their features. "Would you care to tell me why people from your future keep showing up? If I was unaware who these two are and how much they mean to you, I would have had them arrested as impostors and thrown in the dungeons."

Atem grinned. "Of course they are not impostors! They are dearest friends Yugi and Anzu." No longer bothered about them smelling of manure, he placed placed an arm around each of them.

"Pharaoh, I must point out that this is highly irregular. First that obnoxious young man resembling Priest set arrives, and now these two! I pray the Gods don't decide to punish us for breaking the laws of Maat."

"They won't," Atem laughed. "Now, if you will excuse us Siamun, we are in a bit of a hurry."

Tutting, Siamun wagged a finger at Atem. "I don't know what you are all up to my boy, but I hope it is not something that will anger the Gods. If you need me, I will be in the temple, begging them to be lenient." He turned and scurried away.

Atem could not hide his amusement. "Forgive Siamun, he tends to overreact."

Anzu leaned in and whispered in Yugi's ear "Atem's Grandpa certainly lacks the sense of humour that your Grandpa has."

Yugi scratched his head in bemusement. Grandpa's past version was a bit weird.

With Mahad leading the way, the group made their way along a passageway, towards the Royal quarters. On the way, they passed the throne room. "We should check that Kaiba and Jonouchi are not in here," Mahad suggested.

While Yugi knew roughly what Atem's throne room looked like from his memories, he had never imagined that he would actually see it for real. So to be standing here now, gazing at the carved pillars and painted walls felt special. His attention turned to the ornately carved throne. It certainly made a statement of the power possessed by the young Pharaoh. "Wow!" He muttered, stepping up onto the dais, without realising that no one should approach the throne without the Pharaohs' permission.

Mahad gave Atem a nervous look and cleared his throat, ready to reprimand Yugi, but stopped when he saw the smile on Atem's face.

The grin on Atem's face grew wider. "Go ahead and sit down Yugi."

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Yugi felt his heart beating a little faster at the thought.

"You shared your life and soul with me. You have every right to sit on my throne and look at the world from my perspective."

Nodding, Yugi could not hide the grin on his face as he sat down. Was it right to grin like a kid receiving the best birthday present ever? He placed his hands on the armrests and looked around. The throne was perfectly placed to see every single angle of the room.

"This is slightly irregular Pharoah," Mahad whispered. "If anyone should see..."

"It is my throne to do with as I please," Atem quietly hissed, through clamped teeth. "If it were not for Yugi then I would still be trapped in the Puzzle. He has as much right to the throne as I do."

"I know that. It's not what I think that matters. You know what palace gossip is like!"

Atem rolled his eyes. "Let them gossip. I don't care." He folded his arms over his chest and smiled at the way Yugi was sitting; back straight and head held high. He thought back to when Yugi had first solved the Puzzle and their souls were brought together. How broken and weak they both were. Yugi by the loneliness of not fitting into high school very well, and himself by three thousand years of isolation, without any sense of self.

He recalled how his own emotions had been driven by anger, fear and self preservation. Yugi had brought him out of the darkness and he did not want to be sent back there again, to be haunted by the monster he knew was lurking somewhere in the darkness with him.

He suppressed a shudder at his early behaviour. He truly had lost it – bordering on insane. Yugi's kind soul and heart had been strong enough to pull him out of it and help him regain his sanity. Words could never express his gratitude or the heartfelt love he had for Yugi. It warmed him to see how the small, weak boy had grown in stature and confidence. And it warmed him even more to see the girl Yugi had hoped would one day see him as more than just her timid little friend, looking up at him on the throne, with such joyous admiration.

Seeing Yugi on Atem's throne certainly did fill Anzu full of love for Yugi. He looked so proud and handsome and she could just picture him wearing the same royal attire as Atem. However, as she gazed at him, a red warning light on the screen of her wristband started to flash. She glanced to see that it was to tell them that she only had thirty minutes before the avatar she was wearing would fail.

"Yugi? I don't wish to ruin things, but I have a warning light flashing."

Yugi raised his arm and checked his screen. He frowned. "Yeah, me too. Twenty eight minutes. We should hurry up and find Jonouchi and Kaiba." He got up, jumped down off the dais and hurried over to where Atem and Mahad were standing. The concerned look on his face must have shown because Atem immediately uncrossed his arms and his proud smile turned to worry.

Yugi! What's wrong?" Yugi and Anzu showed him the warning lights on their wrists.

Atem's disappointment was evident. He had hoped to have more time than that to spend with them.

He looked at Mahad expectantly and was dismayed when the priest shook his head. He did not understand how modern technology worked, let alone try to interfere with it.

"Maybe Kaiba will know what to do," Atem suggested, hopefully.

"I hope so," said Anzu. Disappointment filled her heart. She was hoping that they would at least have a few more hours to spend with Atem.

They hurriedly left the throne room and made their way up the steps to Atem's chambers.

::::::::::::

Seto kaiba and Jonouchi had been waiting for nearly ten minutes now. Jonouchi was getting worried about his friends. "Where are they? I really wanna go and look for them!"

Seto was getting irritated by Jonouchi's pacing. "You are a stranger here. They would throw you in the dungeons. We will wait here for them." He checked the wristband on his arm. He only had about an hour left before he would be forced to return. He had still not had a proper duel with the Pharaoh and he was not sure what would happen to his body if he let his life support run out. He would be trapped here and since everyone here was already a spirit, he would most likely become one too.

If someone had asked him a few days ago, if he cared about anything other than his duel with Atem, he would have said that he didn't. But he was beginning to realise that he cared about Mokuba, he cared about his company and his plans to grow his empire: The plans were already drawn up for a bigger, better, updated Kaiba Land in Japan, a similar one in America and another in Europe. Then there were his plans for a school...

Shortly before his death, Gozaburo had purchased an island off the coast of Japan, on which he planned to build a luxury spa hotel and casino for millionaires to go and pamper themselves. Screw the wealthy. Seto hated most of them – except for himself. His vision, was for a school that would give students from all social backgrounds a good education, and also give them something that they would never learn in any other school – how to duel.

If he had learned anything from the time he had been here in the afterlife, it was that he actually did value his life more than he valued a victory over Atem. He had something that the Pharaoh did not. He was alive!

Jonouchi suddenly cursed. "Aw... shit! What does this mean?" He waved his arm at Seto. The red warning light was flashing.

Seto snorted. "It means you die in half an hour." he replied, blandly.

"What?! No way! That must mean Yugi and Anzu are running out of time too!" He narrowed his eyebrows. "Hey! How come you ain't vanished? You've been here three times as long as us."

"You are not in your real body! You are a solid vision, holographic avatar. Whereas I am here in physical form due to my clever use of science, merged with the magic of the cube. However, since this is the afterlife and the requirements to exist here are that you are dead, I am still not sure what will happen to my body if I stay for too long." He showed Jonouchi the monitor on his own wristband. "I brought two battery cells to power my life support, but I am now down to just over an hour. So you are not the only one in danger."

"Yeah, but I'm in more danger than you! And you got that cube thing to get you back. Will it get us all home?"

"Only those I wish to take. Which may or may not include you." His mouth twitched into the self satisfied, superior half smirk, that he knew would infuriate Jonouchi.

"Grrr... Why you..." Jonouchi's response was cut short by a familiar sounding female voice. He forgot his rant at Seto and gawked, open mouthed at the young woman who had just entered the chambers.

Teana was looking at them with a worried expression. "Where is my husband and Priest Mahad?!"

"I think they followed me through the portal. We landed in the... ladies quarters." His face flushed slightly. "I don't know where the others ended up!"

"But everyone escaped from the Shadow Realm safely?"

"I think so." Seto could not be too sure. For all he knew, they might have landed on one of those damn spears the guards carried.

Teana seemed to relax a little but would not stop worrying until Atem and Mahad returned safely.

Jonouchi had managed to regain control and was keen to find out who this young woman was? How come Yugi had not said anything about her? "Did you say Atem is your husband?!" His loud volume made Teana flinch slightly. "You look just like Anzu! Man, wait until she finds out!"

At that moment, the doors burst open and Atem came striding in, closely followed by Yugi, Anzu and Mahad.

The moment Anzu's eyes fell on Teana, her hands flew to her mouth and she gasped. "Oh My God!"

She had kind of guessed that she had a double by the reaction of people at the stable. But to actually come face to face with a past version of herself, who she suspected was married to Atem!

Yugi placed his arm around her shoulders. Even though he was prepared for most things, seeing Anzu's past self was still a shock.

He and Atem had talked about the likelihood of him having a wife. After all, he was a Pharaoh! He would have been expected to choose a consort and produce heirs to the throne as quickly as possible and to prove his virility.

He felt sure that if Atem had known about Teana before he left for the afterlife, he would have shared that knowledge. However, Yugi recalled that even after Atem had regained his memories, he had still been missing a few important details about his personal life. Yugi knew of his close friendship with Mana and suggested to him that perhaps she had become his queen. But Atem had not seemed so sure and his love life had remained a mystery... until now.

He suddenly felt Atem talking to him through their mind link.

"Sorry! I should have mentioned Teana before."

"Don't be sorry. It's actually kind of a nice surprise. Although, they do look a bit gob smacked." He heard Atem make an awkward humming sound through their link, in response.

The attraction Anzu had held towards him had not escaped Atem's notice. It had been particularly evident in the early days when she thought that he was Yugi. He remembered being attracted to her as well, but was unsure if they were his own feelings or feelings that he picked up from Yugi.

Since arriving in the afterlife and meeting Teana, he had learned to understand why they had been attracted. But judging by the look of consternation on both Teana and Anzu's faces, they were pretty freaked out by it.

He should have said something earlier. Anzu had been totally unprepared to come face to face with her past self – a past self who she had probably guessed by now, shared his bed! And even though he had told Teana all about Yugi and the friends he had made in the modern world, he could still see how shocked she was.

He fidgeted like an awkward teenager and showed none of the usually stoic exterior that everyone expected of him. He knew that Kaiba was looking at him with great amusement and made sure that he did not catch the CEO's gaze.

He suddenly felt Yugi's calming mind give him a push. He decided that he should introduce them all properly.

When I re-read my original draft, I felt I had not managed to get the right sort of feelings the two girls might get on seeing each other so I altered it a bit. I do hope I have done a good job of portraying how they might feel .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope you like the chapter.  
> Please let me know what you think.


	7. Transcending Boundries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.

Chapter 7.

Having been informed by Kisara that she had seen a man and a woman who closely resembled the Royal couple, Priest Set hurried to Atem's chambers.

As he and Kisara left their room, they bumped into a rather confused Karim. It seemed that news of him entering the palace harem uninvited, with a rather loud and uncouth blonde accomplice, had quickly spread.

"What do you mean the women thought it was me?!" Set rolled his eyes in exasperation. "I hope you corrected them! Now if you don't mind Karim, I'm in a hurry to get to the Pharaohs' quarters. Apparently, some more people from his future have arrived."

Karim's eyes widened. That would certainly explain some of the strange goings on at the stables he had also heard being muttered about. This was too good to miss and he was in intrigued. "I'm coming with you."

They reached the Pharaohs' quarters to find Isis, Siamun and Shada were already there. The doors the Atem's chambers had been left open, and never one to be a shrinking violet, Priest Set marched straight in.

Even though Atem had told them all about his friends from the future, it was still a surprise to see them in person.

After consulting with the Gods, Siamun had calmed down somewhat from his initial irritation at Atem's friends being here, and as soon as introductions were over he suggested that they should hold a feast in honour of their special guests.

Yugi looked at the flashing red light on his wristband and gave Atem a rather disappointed frown.

Atem nodded sadly and squeezed his shoulder. "I am afraid our guests do not have much time left here. If they do not return home very soon they will become trapped here, and since this is not their afterlife I do not know what will happen to them."

An air of disappointment filled the room and Jonouchi felt like he had been kicked in the gut.

It was not fair! All the effort and danger they had gone through to get here, only to be foiled by the limitations of Kaiba's stupid technology. He could see by the looks on his friends faces that they felt the same disappointment that he did. How nice it would be to gorge on a feast in the Pharaohs' court and then hang out playing games together. Food and games – two of Jonouchi's favourite things. But it was not going to happen.

Anzu groaned. "It doesn't seem fair. We come all this way and by the time we get the chance to catch up properly, our time is up!" She and Teana would have loved to spend some time getting to know one another. They may be identical to look at but their lives had unfolded very differently. By the time Teana had reached the age that Anzu was now, she was already a mother and a widow – it was so sad. How brave her former self must have been to carry on without the father of her child by her side.

Anzu did not plan to have a baby until she was at least in her mid twenties, and even that depended on her circumstances and how well her dancing career was going. And she could not imagine what she would do if anything happened to Yugi.

"Are you sure you can't do anything to extend our time here?" Yugi asked Seto.

"No!" Seto replied, firmly. "Like Atem said, if you don't go back your physical bodies will wither away and die once life support is removed."

"Nice way of putting it Kaiba," Yugi frowned. "Do you know what will happen to you if you don't leave?"

"To be honest, no! Technically, I don't belong here. This is not my afterlife. And since everyone here is already dead, I presume that once my wristband stops working, I will also become a spirit. Heaven forbid I have to share my afterlife with you lot."

Anzu and Teana both made tutting noises and rolled their eyes simultaneously. The two women looked at each other, and instinctively knew what the other thought of Seto Kaiba's attitude.

It was Anzu who voiced their shared thoughts. "Is that what you want Kaiba? To die here and give up everything you have in the living world?"

Seto sucked on his cheek and looked at his feet, kicking at an imaginary piece of dirt to avoid eye contact with anyone. He would never feel comfortable discussing his feelings. "Originally, I wasn't bothered, but now... no, it is not what I want. I value my life."

None of them were used to hearing Kaiba reveal any emotion other than voicing his own superiority. It was uncharacteristic, and rather than make some sort of snide remark, Jonouchi felt something resembling empathy. "I don't think Mokuba could carry on without you. That kid loves ya, you know?"

A rye little smile caused the corner of Seto's mouth to curl. "Yeah, I know he does." It was said with a warmth that portrayed his love for his little brother. He did not say it, but he did not think he would have achieved anything in life without Mokuba.

Was Kaiba's attitude changing? Yugi reached for Atem through their mind link to see if he thought the same thing. Apparently he did.

"Life is valuable Kaiba. It is too valuable to waste on your rivalry with me. The chance to achieve my goals in life were taken from me when I sacrificed myself. Buy you have the opportunity to use your position to build a good future for those who have been less fortunate than yourself," Atem told him, in a kind yet commanding tone.

Seto shot him a smirk. "Don't bore me with your speeches Atem. I still have forty minutes left. That gives me plenty of time to send the dweeb squad home, and then defeat you." He was joking, of course, but Atem did not seem to understand the joke and fixed his rival with a stern glare.

"My immediate concern is to ensure that all of you return home safely. I will not allow any of you to die!" He turned to Yugi. "How long do you have left?"

"I have ten minutes. What about you Anzu? Jonouchi?"

"Same as you," Anzu replied.

"I only have eight," Jonouchi scowled.

"Then we had better get you all home now," Atem concluded. "Mahad! Are you able to send them?"

Mahad nodded. "I can send you to where you started within Duat, using my heka, but I am unable to return you too your physical bodies. However, If you will allow me to use the cube, I can send them back into their real bodies."

"Yeah!" Jonouchi grinned brightly, "If you can do that, we can stay for another five minutes."

"I will get it!" Without hesitating, Atem hurried into his bed chambers and returned less than a minute later, carrying the cube.

"That's mine!" Seto barked. "It has been modified! Only I know how to use it."

Mahad looked it over. He could sense that it had been tampered with, but not enough to damage how it would work. "I can send all of you home together. But, I am afraid that you cannot take the cube with you."

"What?! I hope you're kidding me?" Seto retorted angrily. "That technology belongs to me! The possibilities it holds will revolutionise the gaming industry. I have plans beyond your wildest dreams that will make me the most powerful man in the world! I won't let you keep it from me."

With a worried expression, Mahad shook his head. "My Pharaoh?" He looked to Atem for support.

"Kaiba! That technology, as you call it, is based on a very dangerous form of dark alchemy. It is the same alchemy that was used to form the Millennium Items. In the wrong hands, it will lead to disaster – as I am sure you are aware after what happened with Diva during your selfish attempts to reassemble the Millennium Puzzle. I can already see that the Cube is beginning to corrupt your mind. I cannot allow you to keep it."

Seto gave him a dark look. "And what do you intend to do with it?"

"I will destroy it, and its power will be fragmented in time and returned to the underworld, where it will be guarded by the Gods; just as it was before the power was borrowed."

"But!" Seto was not sure what to say. Deep down, he knew that Atem was right. He had seen how much power the Cube, and, of course, the Millennium items had held. Its power would have given him the ability to control the entire world and mould it into a gaming nirvana, or... it might result in a dark place, full of unspeakable hell. Either way, he would be unstoppable! If anyone stood in his way, he could destroy them. And if he was brutally honest, it terrified him.

He took a deep breath to steady his growing trepidation. "You are right. No mortal human should be allowed to have access to that much power. I trust you to dispose of it."

"Thank you Kaiba," Atem breathed a sigh of relief, and with a little sadness, asked Mahad to send them home.

Desperate to delay Mahad performing the spell that would return them home for just a little while longer, Jonouchi put his hand up. "Hey! Wait up? We haven't said our goodbyes yet!"

Atem looked awkward. He hated goodbyes. There was a finality to them which left him feeling hollow and sad. It was why he had turned his back on his friends and stepped towards the gate and into the afterlife without hugging everyone and telling them how much each of them meant to him. He just could not handle the idea that he would have made himself look sentimental and soppy by sobbing in their arms.

There had also been the very real possibility that he would have changed his mind and refused to leave. Unable to return to Yugi, his soul would have been left without a body, forever a ghost, haunting his friends into old age. He shuddered internally at the thought.

"It will only take a moment to summon the portal. By all means, take the time to say farewell," Mahad answered.

Atem clasped the hand Jonouchi held out to him. "Take care Jonouchi. Keep duelling and make everyone proud."

With a wicked smirk, Jonouchi pounced on Atem. "I know you're a Pharaoh and all, but I have always wanted to do this...!" Atem let out a surprised squawk as Jonouchi threw his arm around his neck and wrestled him into a headlock. Smirking, he rubbed his knuckles in Atem's hair. He was not at all surprised to find his hair was exactly the same soft thick texture as Yugi's.

At the sight of the Pharaoh being manhandled, everyone in the room – with the exception of Seto – gasped in horror.

Seto just rolled his eyes, slapped his forehead and muttered, "Moron."

Having been taught how to fight in close combat, Atem knew how to escape the infamous 'noogie.' As soon as his initial shock at being grabbed had passed, he turned the tables. Like Yugi, he was smaller than Jonouchi, but whereas Yugi had learned to wriggle and squirm his way out of Jonouchi's headlocks, Atem flipped him over his shoulder and grabbed Jonouchi in a headlock of his own.

"How'd you like a taste of your own medicine Jonouchi?!" Atem grinned, rubbing his knuckles into his friend's mob of blonde hair.

"Narghh... Man, that hurts! Stop it!" Jonouchi wriggled and his heavier bodyweight caused the pair to end up rolling on the ground, laughing and wrestling for superiority.

Yugi laughed so hard he almost fell over. It was good to see Atem lowering his stoic exterior and behaving like a typical eighteen/nineteen year old. It made it all the more sad to think that he had not been given the chance to stay with them for a little while longer.

In the first few months after their duel, Yugi had often wished he had not played Gold Sarcophagus. But he knew deep down why he had played it. The laws of Maat were strict when it came to cheating and the Gods would have shown little mercy to either of them if he had thrown the duel. At best, they would have been subjected to re-living their worst fears inside a Shadow Game, at worst, their souls would have been fed to Amit.

Laughing, the pair stopped wrestling. Jonouchi stood up and offered Atem his hand. Grinning, Atem, took it and Jonouchi yanked him to his feet so enthusiastically that Atem almost pitched forward. Thankfully, his nimble, cat like reflexes enabled him to keep his balance.

"Man, that was fun," Jonouchi beamed, slapping him on the back. I wish I could learn more of your Egyptian hand to hand combat.

Atem clamped Jonouchi on the back "Thank you for being a good friend to myself and Yugi," he said, sincerely, before leaving Jonouchi and walking over to where Yugi stood.

The pair stood facing one another with just a few inches separating them. Yugi kind of wanted to throw his arms around Atem and hug him to show his gratitude for everything, but being reserved, he hesitated. "See you around then." He could feel the heartfelt gratitude radiating from Atem.

Atem took Yugi's hand and placed it against his own heart and held it there. He then placed his other hand against Yugi's chest. "We might not meet again for a very long time, but remember, we will always remain in each others hearts." Yugi placed his palm over the back of the hand Atem had on his heart. They could literally feel the way their hearts beat in synchronisation.

"Brothers. Soulmates," Yugi smiled warmly.

With their eyes filled with tears, Teana took Anzu's hand and they walked over to where their two favourite, spiky haired young men were still saying farewell.

The two men parted. Atem winked at Anzu and hugged her. "Sorry I was not able to tell you about Teana in advance. It must have been a huge shock!"

Anzu kissed him on the cheek. "Don't worry," she beamed. "I'm actually really happy, because at least I now know that you have someone to look after you and make you behave yourself," she teased. They all laughed at the innocent pout on Atem's face.

Yugi blushed when Teana leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. It felt weird and yet not weird. "We will forever be eternally grateful to you for helping Atem to fulfil his destiny. Cherish every moment that you and your friends have together and enjoy long and rewarding lives."

"We will never forget you. Meeting Atem was the best thing that ever happened to me," Yugi admitted.

With all the soppy feels, Seto wanted to make some remark about puking, but instead, found himself feeling emotional. For a moment he wished that he and Priest Set could share more than just a polite handshake and a nod. But then he checked himself for feeling mushy. "If you lot could hurry up! I would actually like my chance to say goodbye to Atem, before you all turn into ghosts."

"Feeling left out then Kaiba?" Jonouchi chuckled.

"Fuck off!" Seto growled. It was said in an offended tone, that made Jonouchi think twice about biting back.

Without looking at anyone else, Seto stepped up to Atem and offered a handshake which Atem readily accepted. "Believe it or not, I actually found my visit here worthwhile. It's just not how I had planned it, but..." he hesitated, looking for the right words, without sounding like Yugi and one of his pleb friends.

"How did you plan for it to go Kaiba?" Atem had that all knowing, overconfident smirk of his on his face, that at one time, Seto just wanted to punch.

But for some reason, he no longer found it irritating. It used to annoy him to the point of distraction, but now he saw it for what it was: a mask, to hide his fear of failure and self doubt. The Pharaoh had relied on Yugi to give him strength, and his friends to aid his confidence, whereas Seto had battled on his own. He saw now, that even though they displayed different traits, they were both driven by an intense fear of losing. And the only person they were really losing to was themselves.

Through Yugi, Atem had managed to overcome that fear, but Seto was still struggling, and would probably continue to struggle. But at least now he understood his failings.

"I planned to beat you using the latest technology. I planned to hand you the most humiliating defeat of your... existence, and I planned to do it in front of your priests and loyal subjects. I wanted to see you collapse to your knees and scream quietly into your clenched fists, that it 'was not fair'. I wanted you to choke on all those lectures you gave me about respect and friendship. But now that seems... a little excessive and obsessive."

Atem smiled, squeezed his hand firmly, and clamped his other hand on Seto's upper arm. "I never once saw our rivalry as excessive! Maybe it was just a little obsessive, but you and I are fiercely competitive. I just wish that we had time for a friendly duel. No lives at stake, no lunatic trying to end the world, and with our friends watching and cheering us on. If there was one valuable lesson I learned from Yugi, it is that games should be played for enjoyment. Unfortunately, our duels never seemed to allow for enjoyment because I needed to win to prevent innocent people from dying. I just wish that it could have been different."

Behind him, the portal Mahad had summoned was beginning to grow. It would reach it's maximum capacity at any moment, at which point they would all need to step through.

Behind him, Seto heard them calling to him that they had to leave now. Atem could not see over Seto's shoulder and looked around him to see that Mahad was looking intense. A portal of that magnitude was difficult to maintain, even for Mahad.

"Rest assured, I will find a way to return for our duel," Seto smirked.

Atem nodded. "I don't doubt it. Until then, farewell my friend."

Friend? After everything that we have been through, he still calls me friend. He could not quite bring himself to consider them good friends, but maybe a more friendly rivalry would be less destructive than what they had been used to.

His smirk softened and with a nod he turned to go.

Everyone was waving and calling out their final goodbyes. And as Atem watched them all go, he could not prevent himself from wishing that he could go with them. Not for ever, but just for a few days; to duel and play video games – if only they had video games here.

He lifted his hand and wiped away the tears that were threatening to fall.

Stood beside him, Teana could see the wistful look on his face. "Are you okay my love?" She gently wrapped her arm around his waist and let her head rest against his.

"Yeah.." he sniffed and hugged her tightly too him. "Seeing them all again reminded me of how much I miss them." He hesitated. "But I also have dear friends and people I love here, who waited for three thousand years, not knowing if my soul would ever be returned. As much as I would love to live out the rest of my natural life with them, I do not want to leave here now that I'm home."

The lifespan of a human, was a drop in the ocean of time and he did not doubt that he would see them again once their lives were over. Hopefully, their lives would be long and they would have wonderful tales of happiness and success to bring with them to their own afterlife. Their success in life would make him a very happy man indeed.

But he was still blessed with the power of the Gods, and he vowed quietly to himself that he would keep a sneaky eye on them as they progressed through their lives. He knew that he could not interfere or influence what fate held in store for them; because unless it involved the supernatural or demonic activity, it was against the rules for the Gods to interfere in the lives of mortals. If it was a person's time to die, albeit from disease, murder or an accident, then he would be punished for preventing it.

A frustrating rule, in his opinion, but a rule that he understood - you could not just go around altering that which was to become history. One or two Gods had tried that and it had lead to catastrophic disasters and war. His own father had changed the outcome of a war by forging the Millennium Items and they had all paid the price.

Lost in his thoughts, he did not notice the portal closing until someone spoke. It was Mahad.

"Pharaoh, the Cube!" He was holding it out to Atem, in the palm of his hand. "Shall we destroy it now?"

"Oh! Thank you Mahad. Yes!"

They all made their way to the temple, where Atem carefully slotted the Cube into the stone tablet from which it was originally forged.

Together, they all formed a circle and chanted a passage from the Book of The Dead, that would return the Cube into minute particles from which it was formed. A bright light surrounded the Cube, before it imploded and was sucked down into the Duat, where it would be watched over and kept safe by the Gods.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.  
> Don't forget to give me some kudos if you liked it.


	8. Transcending Boundries

In the control room of the space station, Mokuba watched as their life counters ticked steadily towards zero.

They were cutting it really fine. Not only had he lost his brother, he had sent Yugi and his friends to their deaths, trying to find him.

Worried, frightened and unable to sit still, he started pacing. Why did things always have to go down to the wire? He let out a string of audible curses – Seto would scold him if he heard him use such words!

His heart ached. Please, Seto? Don't leave me here on my own.

He stood in front of the pods. Yugi, Anzu and Jonouchi were laying there motionless. "Sorry I got you into this guys."

Behind him, a sudden build up of static electricity made the hairs on his neck tingle. He turned his head slightly, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a bright ball of swirling light. It made him gasp.

With some trepidation, he turned to face it. "Hel... hello? Who's there?"

He almost backed into the pods when the ball of swirling energy rapidly expanded, until it blocked his view of the computer monitors, and his escape route.

His heart was thumping inside his chest, and then it started to dawn on him that it might be a portal. A little spike of hope told him that it could have something to do with his brother.

Suddenly, the centre of the portal became darker and took on the appearance of a vortex. The vortex then shot outwards and spat out three almost identical balls of pink, blue, silver and gold energy. They flew past Mokuba's head and he gasped at the realisation they were souls.

The three souls hovered over the three bodies, as if deciding which one to choose, before each of them hammered straight into the chest of their chosen body.

Before Mokuba had time to check they were waking up, the vortex expanded again, this time, large enough to spit out a six foot one inch man.

Third time lucky, and Seto still managed to land like a baby giraffe. Just how did one jump through a portal, and land on the other side, looking composed and ready for anything? The journey through was like being inside a washing machine on spin-cycle, making it virtually impossible to land on your feet.

His hands found the ground first, and he was glad that he had the mind to roll over onto one shoulder and do a parachute roll to prevent a broken wrist or a face plant.

"Seto! You're okay!" He heard Mokuba shriek with delight and felt the boys arms around him as he dizzily pushed himself to sit up.

"Heh, heh, Of course I am Mokuba." He was surprised to suddenly find himself caring about Yugi and his two friends. "Have the dweeb patrol returned safely?"

"Yeah! I think so."

Behind them, Yugi blinked and opened his eyes. The first thing he was aware of was the word ERROR flashing in red letters inside his helmet. He panicked for a moment and quickly snatched his hands from the glove pockets on the arm-rests, and pulled the helmet off.

The first thing he was aware of was the artificial lighting of the space station. He took a breath and was relieved to feel his own lungs fill with air. He tried to sit up but his head was swimming like he had been asleep too heavily and woken with a start. He was also being restrained by the seat belt.

He fumbled with the catch and sat up.

"Hey! Where da fuck are we?!" He heard Jonouchi's muffled, panicked voice from inside his helmet. He looked over to see that Jonouchi was kicking his legs and flailing his arms about.  
"Jonouchi?! Take your helmet off and you will be able to see."

A few grunts and some muffled swearing were heard as he fumbled with the chin strap, before throwing the helmet across the room. "Man! I was suffocating in that thing!"

"Each of those helmets cost more than you earn in a month, moron! If you've broken it..." Seto seethed, picking it up off the floor and examining it.

"It doesn't matter Seto," Mokuba grinned. "I'm just relieved you're all back in one piece!"

Yugi climbed out of his pod and went to help Anzu out of her seat. "Are you okay Anzu?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she confirmed. "What about you Jonouchi?"

"Apart from a splitting head, yeah," Jonouchi complained, rubbing his hands over his forehead and through his straw coloured mane of hair. Did he actually feel a bump where Yugi hit him?! "Man you clocked me good Yugi!"

Yugi apologised sheepishly. He had not meant to hurt his friend and felt pretty bad about it.

Still beaming with relief, Mokuba powered down the pods. "Thank god you are all okay. You had me worried there, for a while!"

When Mokuba told them that he had lost all contact with them and had almost given up, they felt guilty.

"I'm sorry if we worried you Mokuba, but we all knew the risk we were taking," Yugi explained.

"Yeah, and if your brother hadn't gone off on his stupid mission to find Atem in the first place..." Jonouchi began, but was interrupted by Seto.

"Then none of you would have got to see Him, would you?" He said smugly. "And besides, it was not my fault that you put yourselves in danger and had to be saved... by me!"

"You never saved us! Atem and Mahad did the saving, you just got in the way," Jonouchi challenged.

"Oh, for goodness sakes you two!" Anzu got between them. "It's no one's fault, so will you stop bitching at each other for once, and be nice. We got to see Atem and that makes it all worth it in my opinion." Her use of the word bitching, got snickers from Yugi and Mokuba, while Jonouchi and Seto pouted like naughty schoolboys caught running in the corridor, with their outdoor shoes on.

::::::::::::

Back on solid ground, they were greeted by members of staff, who had arrived for their shift, to find the ground station empty.

None of the staff working on the ground, dared to question where Seto Kaiba had been for the last couple of days, or why staff working on the previous shift had been sent home early by Mokuba. They all knew better than to question their employers about their often irrational experiments with virtual reality and solid vision technology. The last person to question Seto Kaiba's judgement had been fired instantly.

"Good day Mister Kaiba," the laboratory technician in charge bowed. "I trust your latest tests were a success?" When Seto ignored him and walked straight by, he clutched his I-pad and followed at Seto's elbow. "Do you require me to input any data Sir?" Jonouchi noted that if the man could have grovelled any lower, he would have been prostrate on the floor, kissing Kaiba's shoes.

Seto stopped at the sliding, panelled glass doors and turned to the man, making him quake and shrink back slightly. "I will expect a full analysis of the data from the avatars used by these three, on my desk by tomorrow morning. I also want my data fully analysed." He pulled off his wrist band and handed it to the man. "Everything has been recorded on here." There was every chance that enough data had been recorded for him to be able to re-create the portal that had been summoned by Mahad.

The memory of getting drunk and playing stupid games with the Pharaoh, made him smirk. The sight of Atem with game pieces in his hair and drool on his face, was something he would not forget. And he had every intention of returning so that they could finally face each other in proper battle.

"Yes Sir." Bowing again, the man scurried to the three other technicians and began ordering them to retrieve the data from the space station's virtual reality pods.

Puffing his chest out, Seto turned to Mokuba. "Let's go Mokuba." After everything he had been through on this latest adventure, he could use a shower, a shave and a good night sleep.

::::::::::::

Three days had passed since returning from Atem's afterlife and things had pretty much settled back down to normal.

As with all of their adventures, they just put it behind them and got on with it.

Yugi had found himself left in charge of the shop, after his grandfather decided to go and visit an old friend for a few days. He had not seen anything of Anzu or Jonouchi; Anzu was working and also getting in as much dance practise as possible, while Jonouchi was working extra shifts to make up for the one he had missed.

With a reflective smile, Yugi squirted some window cleaner onto the inside of the shop window and started to rub away the smears where small insects had left marks on the glass.

A couple of teenage girls and a boy were walking by and stopped to gawk at him, as he rubbed and scowled at the stubborn marks.

Grinning, Yugi gave them a little wave. The two girls swooned and giggled, while the boy grinned and waved back. Yeah, sometimes even the King of Games had to do chores.

Once he had finished with the shop window, he Swept the dried insect bodies, from the window ledge, into a dustpan. Tipping them into the bin, he then washed his hands before grabbing a can of coke from the small fridge at the back of the shop.

He sat down on the stool behind the counter, to drink it.

It was a slow day. And there was a storm forecast so he doubted it would get any busier.

He wondered what the Kaiiba brothers had been doing since returning from Atem's afterlife. Was Kaiba busy trying to find another way to go back there and challenge Atem to a duel? He wished that Kaiba would drop this obsession and leave Atem alone.

Still, if Kaiba had not gone on his crazy journey in the first place, then they would not have been able to see Atem again. Despite nearly ending up becoming demonic soup and getting covered in manure, it had all been worthwhile.

Meeting Teana had been the biggest revelation. He was not surprised to find that Atem had a consort; after all, he was a Pharaoh, and it would be expected of him. But to find out that his consort was a past incarnation of Anzu, was, well, not something they had ever imagined. He was amazed that Anzu had been so calm about it – at least outwardly.

They had yet to talk about it and how it might affect their own relationship. He hoped it would not make things awkward.

The rapidly darkening sky and rumbles of thunder, interrupted his thoughts. It appeared that the storm was arriving earlier than the forecasters had said.

Moments later, heavy rain started to fall.

The shop door dinged and a rather drenched and irritable Anzu walked in, wearing a light raincoat. Mumbling about the storm, she allowed the door to swing shut behind her.

The sight of her dripping water everywhere made him laugh. "Hey, Anzu!" She looked cute with raindrops dripping off the end of her nose.

"Don't laugh Yugi! It's not funny. My feet are soaked!" She was only wearing sandals. "I'm going to have to learn to drive, then I wouldn't have to walk in this weather. Honestly! It's supposed to be July! It feels more like October." She looked around for somewhere to hang her we coat.

Smiling at her ranting, he hurried out from behind the counter and placed a kiss on her wet lips. "How was your ballet lesson?"

She smiled at him. "My ballet lesson was better than this weather!"

He took her wet coat from her. "You should have called. Grandpa doesn't mind me using the van." He turned and made his way to the room at the back of the shop. Anzu followed him.

"I keep forgetting you have passed your driving test. Maybe you can drive me home later."

Anzu had spent the last three days, thinking about Teana. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined that she had a past self who was Atem's... she hated the word consort, it made her sound like a call girl. Wife sounded much nicer. They were so young, with their lives still ahead of them. It was so sad that they had not had a long, happy life together as a family. They would have been such a lovely family. Atem would have been a wonderful father – if only he'd had the chance.

Every time she thought about it she felt all churned up inside.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she took her phone out of her bag and messaged her mother to say she had stopped off at Yugi's to escape the rain, and would be home in time for evening meal.

She looked up when Yugi handed her a small hand towel. "Oh! Thank you." She started to dry herself as best she could with such a small towel.

"Would you like some tea?" He asked, already filling the kettle.

"Yes please," She sat down on a chair and took off her wet sandals and dried her feet.

"Good job you remembered your rain coat!" He reminded her, hanging her coat on a hook by the door that lead into the garage.

"Yes, I saw the forecast this morning. The storm wasn't supposed to get here for another hour though. Apparently, we have these storms for a few days."

"Yeah, so I heard," Yugi replied, placing a mug of tea on the table in front of her. He sat down in the chair opposite, with his own mug of tea in his hands. He was pretending to watch the steam rising from the mug but was actually peering through his fringe, watching her. With the way that she was sitting and lifting her leg to rub her feet, he could see right to the top of her inside thigh, to her panties.

Face flushed, and not from the steam rising from the mug, he snapped his gaze up to her face. "It's been hot so maybe the storms will clear the air a bit." He gave her a tender, loving smile.

"Are you alright Yugi? You look a bit flushed."

"Oh! Yeah... Steam." He waved his hand over the top of his mug. "It's still a bit too hot," he said, placing it back on the table. "I er... I was hoping to talk to you." Not knowing how to begin, he scratched his head. She was looking at him with a slightly concerned expression so he tried to give her a reassuring smile. "I wondered how you have been feeling since we got back? We haven't had chance to talk."

"If you're worried I'm freaking out about Atem and Teana being so young and in a serious relationship, I'm not. Times were different then and people got married younger. It was quite normal for women to have children in their teens."

"Yeah, when he was still part of me, we talked about his life. Even after he got his memories back there were still vital parts missing. We tried to fill in the gaps, but he couldn't remember anything. When he reached the afterlife, he was as surprised as we were to meet Teana. He tried to hide it from me, but I still sensed how sad he was when he found out he had not known he was going to be a father."

Anzu took a sip of her tea and smiled reflectively. "I have been thinking about them a lot. It was so sad that they had to be parted like that, but if Atem had not sacrificed himself then we would never have known him and our adventures would never have happened."

Yugi nodded in agreement. Fate was funny like that.

"But still," Anzu continued. "They are together at last, and they did look so cute together." She blushed, several shades of pink.

"You, erm... don't envy Teana, do you?"

Anzu gave him a confused look. "In what way? Why would I envy them?"

Yugi shrugged. "I dunno... It's just, well, you always liked the other Me. And the other You is with him, and you're left with me. I still worry I'm not good enough."

"Yugi! Just stop it will you? Why to you always denigrate yourself? Sure, I did like him, but I liked you too. I never saw him as separate from you because you shared the same body! To begin with, I thought he was you! I have found my feelings confusing at times. But meeting Atem and Teana made me realise how different to you and me they both are. They belong together in their time, and you and I belong together here. So, when I tell you that I love you, I mean You, not Him."

He felt a little embarrassed. Was she telling him off? "So, I'm not second best?"

"No! Of course not! Every time I look at you, I can't stop thinking how much you have grown in strength and confidence. And you were never second best. Not even to Atem."

Yugi was looking at her with wide eyes. He could not ever remember asking her out properly. They hung out together as friends and going on dates together felt natural.

Then there was the other afternoon, just before Mokuba rang the doorbell. They way they had kissed certainly suggested that she saw him as more than a friend. If he did not follow up on that and just left things as they were, she would go to New York and they would probably drift apart. He could not let that happen.

He got up and scurried around to her side of the table and took both her hands in his. "Anzu, will you be my girlfriend?"

Anzu gazed into his eyes, softly. The way his pupils dilated, sending dark flecks into the beautiful crystal amethyst and deep plumb of his irises, made her shiver.

"Are you cold?" He said, with some concern. "You don't have to answer me straight away. I will get something to warm you up while you think!"

Anzu tightened her grip on his hands so that he could not move away from her. "No! I'm not cold. I'm just," she blushed, "flattered that you like me enough to ask. I'm not sure I deserve it with the way I have always taken you for granted. But if you are willing to put up with me going away for the next few years, then yes! I would love to be your girlfriend." She could not help but notice how his eyes suddenly darkened, or the way he started fidgeting.

"Do.. do you want to... erm... Shall I close the shop for the rest of the day? Grandpa is away for a couple of days and Mum won't be home until about six, and..." He faltered when he realised he was talking too fast and she was giving him a slightly amused, confused look. "Sorry," he sucked on his bottom lip, sheepishly. "I'm pressurising you, aren't I? If you're not ready, I understand. It's just... when were at your house and Mokuba disturbed us, I thought.. I don't know what I thought.. Sorry." He did not know if he could wait until after she graduated Juilliard.

The way he was looking at her made her feel all flustered. She would be away for at least two years. A lot could happen in that time. Anzu felt that she probably could wait, but she knew from having boys as her best friends, that they thought about sex and relationships differently to how she did. If their relationship were to endure, it needed commitment. Without that commitment, he would probably stray. If she was honest, she probably would be tempted too. "So many strange things keep happening to us, and we have no idea what's going to happen in the future. For all we know, Kaiba will send the whole of Domino into a virtual time vortex with his experiments. I don't want to go to New York without giving you what you want." She slid her hands up his arms and draped them over his shoulders.

"It doesn't matter what I want. What do you want?" He was still on one knee in front of her. Pulling himself up so that he was crouching, rather than kneeling, he brushed his lips against hers.

"I think you know what I want." When she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him in for a passionate snog, he fell on top of her.

"Sorry!" He broke the kiss and jumped up. "Did I hurt you?"

She started laughing. "I'm fine. How about you lock the door, before a customer comes in?"

"Oh! Yeah!" He gasped. He had totally forgotten about that. "I will do it now."


	9. Transcending Boundries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have reached the final chapter in this short story. I hope you enjoy.

Since returning from Atem's Afterlife, Seto had found it difficult to concentrate properly on anything. So many thoughts and what ifs were buzzing around in his mind.

As a self proclaimed sceptic, he had spent an awful lot of time and resources on trying to explore the supernatural. He had always adamantly denied that anything such as an afterlife even existed – it was just something people made up because they were afraid of dying.

But any scepticism he once held had been overruled by his desire to find and duel Atem.

None of this should make any sense what so ever, but oddly, it did.

Upon reflection, he now realised that when he had used the power of the Cube to travel into the afterlife, he had not really thought it through. He had been too hasty; blinded by the ambition to find Atem and duel him into submission. He had wanted to humiliate him into accepting that Seto was the greatest ever duellist. It had all seemed so straightforward in his head.

Except it had not been that straightforward. Not only had the dweeb squad shown up in a foolish effort to rescue him, but they had got themselves into trouble. He had ended up wasting so much of his limited time on rescuing them.

There had also been some interesting surprises which had knocked him back a bit too. When Ishizu had shown him that lump of rock with the silly carving on it, he had dismissed it as a fake, manufactured to get his attention. When he and Yugi had witnessed a vision of their past selves, he had dismissed it as an hallucination, brought about by being knocked unconscious when Slifer and Obelisk struck each other. But he could no longer deny that his past self, Priest Set, really had existed. Or that Kisara and his beloved Blue Eyes White Dragon were one and the same. He was even starting to wonder if there might be a modern day Kisara living somewhere in the world, whom he was destined to meet one day. He just hoped that when they did meet, she did not turn out to be a gold digging bimbo. He snorted at the thought – relationships were not his thing.

Then he started to ponder the relationship between Priest Set and Atem: They were cousins! Did that mean he and Mokuba were distantly related to Atem? Or...

Chewing on his thumb, he wondered where his original birth papers were. He had not seen them in years. If he remembered correctly, he and Mokuba's original family name was Yamaguchi; which was quite a common name. The weird notion that he might be distantly related to Yugi kept going through his head. "Ridiculous," he hissed.

But there was no denying that he really was the modern incarnation of Priest Set, or that Yugi was Atem's modern incarnation.

There was even a past version of Anzu Mazaki, who was shacked up with Atem! That did not surprise him mich, seeing as how Yugi and Anzu always seemed to be together, trying to pretend that there was nothing going on between them. At least Atem and Teana did not try to hide it.

What about Mokuba? Did he also had a past Self? He had not seen anything to indicate that he might. Jonouchi did not have one either. Ishizu had one called Isis, and Mahad was the Dark Magician. Was it possible that most of the people connected to the Millennium items had a double? But Anzu was not connected to the items, so how did that figure?

"Aghhhh..." He hit the intercom button. "Keiko, tell Isono to bring my car to the front of the building. I'm going out for the rest of the day." He stood up, swiped his coat from the coat stand and marched out of the office.

It was still raining heavily when he stepped outside, and a member of staff was quickly by his side to hold an umbrella over him. Being that he was about five inches taller than the other man, it was awkward and Seto had to stoop. "Never mind. I'll take that!" He snatched the umbrella and jogged to his car, leaving the staff member in the rain.

Isono was immediately out of the car, holding the door open. Seto shoved the umbrella in his hands and climbed in. Shaking the water from the umbrella, Isono ran round to the drivers side and got in, throwing the collapsed umbrella into the passenger foot well. "Where to Mister Kaiba?"

"Kame Game Store."

"Ah, you wish to see Mister Mutou Sir? Shall I ring ahead and tell him we are on our way?"

"No, that won't be necessary."

"As you wish Sir." They drove the remainder of the fifteen minute drive in silence

The car pulled up on the forecourt, as close to the store as possible so that Seto would not get wet dashing from the car to the store.

Shoving the door open, he stepped inside the shop.

::::::::::::

Delayed by their inability to stop kissing and cuddling, the sound of the shop door dinging made them both jump.

Yugi suddenly regretted not closing the shop and locking the door immediately he had suggested it. "A customer!" He let go of Anzu. "I should go..." Trying to banish the images he had of them both on his bed, kissing, and maybe more, he scurried out to the counter.

He gasped when he saw who it was. "Kaiba! What are you doing here?" Yugi was always suspicious when Seto Kaiba showed up, unannounced.

"You say it like you wish I wasn't,Yugi." The corner of one side of his mouth twitched into a knowing smirk when Anzu appeared. "Did I disturb something?"

"No! Of course not!" Anzu responded sharply. "We were chatting and drinking tea."

Seto rolled his eyes. These two were so ridiculous when it came to their relationship. He felt like telling Yugi to just man up, take her upstairs and give her a dam good seeing to. They were out of high school now, so the 'no dating' rule no longer applied. "Well, whatever," he snorted, dismissing the temptation to ridicule them about their non-relationship. "I actually came here because there is something I wanted to discuss with you Yugi."

A small gasp of surprise escaped Yugi. Kaiba wanted to have a discussion with him? That was a first. "O..okay... Let me close up the shop first." He quickly flipped the closed sign and locked the door.

The initial urge to discuss their family trees had somewhat subsided on the way here and Seto now found himself feeling silly. He was no longer sure if he wished to find out if they were related, let alone tell Yugi about his thoughts.

But both Yugi and Anzu were looking at him inquisitively so he had to think of something quickly. "Mokuba tells me you wish to become a game designer, Yugi. Is that correct?"

"Erm.. yes." Yug scratched his head. "I haven't really done anything about it yet though. I've been kind of busy running the shop so that Grandpa could take some holiday."

"What are you going to do about it?" He said, in a rather bossy tone. Anzu thought he sounded like their careers guidance officer.

"Enrol in a course, I suppose. But I confess, I have not looked into it yet. I was kind of waiting until after Anzu has gone to New York," said Yugi, guardedly. He was worried he was coming across as lazy and in no hurry to pursue his ambitions.

"I was thinking of offering you a partnership." Seto was not sure why he said that! He did not offer partnerships to anyone. He noticed that they were both looking at him with disbelief so he continued. "My company is a world leader in gaming and VR software. Since you are on the same level as me when it comes to understanding that we are not restricted to the real world, I am willing to offer you the chance to work with me; providing you enrol on a course and learn how to write code and design basic graphics. I will even help fund the course."

Yugi's chin nearly fell onto the floor. "Ya... yeah! Cool. I mean, thank you Kaiba. I accept your offer." It was the kick up the backside he needed. Kaiba Corp. could also offer him use of all the latest technology with which to work and build his ideas.

"Good." Seto offered him a handshake, which Yugi accepted. "I will draw up the contract and be in touch." He turned to go, but stopped and hesitated before turning around again. "Do you have many relatives?" Yugi looked at him, confused, so Seto rolled his eyes. "You know, aunts, uncles and cousins. Do you have many?"

"Well, Grandpa had a sister, who lives in Kyoto. She had two kids who had five children between them. They are my cousins. I think two are working in Tokyo. One moved to London and the other is still in Kyoto. I last saw them at the cousin who lives in Kyoto's wedding. Mum's side is a bit more complicated. Why do you ask?"

"No reason. It was just something Mokuba wanted to know for a project he is doing on family trees," he shrugged. "What was your mother's family name, before she married your father?"

"Erm.. Her name is Hana, her family name is Ishikawa. She has got one brother and a sister. Her parents broke up and her father remarried. He had another daughter, I think – I have never met her and don't know her name. I could ask Mum if you like?"

"No, it doesn't matter. Sorry to be so nosy."

"It's alright, I don't mind," Yugi grinned. Kaiba had offered him a working partnership and was enquiring about his family. Did that count as being friendly? Kaiba never showed any interest in anyone other than himself unless it was for his own gains, so Yugi felt cautiously optimistic that this was Kaiba making an effort to be more sociable and friendly.

Anzu was more doubtful. As soon as Seto had gone, she turned to Yugi. "What was all that about?! Why all the questions about your family?"

"Maybe he's just showing an interest in someone else for a change. He's trying to be nice, we should all encourage him."

"Be careful Yugi. This is Kaiba we're talking about so there's got to be a catch. Make sure you read the contract he draws up, very carefully. For all we know, he's being friendly to get you to drop your guard and sign away all the profits of anything you design."

Yugi reached for her hand. "Maybe," he replied, reflectively. "But I would like to give him a chance. People can change. Look at me! I used to be a push over, but I'm not any more."

"But I know you. You are too willing to trust people."

"Don't worry Anzu. I'm not stupid. I will get Grandpa to read through the contract with me before I agree to anything, okay?"

Nodding, Anzu smiled and gave him a peck on the lips. "What do you want to do for the rest of the afternoon? We can research courses in graphics and game design if you like."

Full of confidence, he slipped his arms around her waist. "Later. There's plenty of time for that. I would rather spend as much time with you as possible before you leave." Capturing her lips with his, he kissed her lovingly.

Seeing Atem with Teana were in love, had given him the belief that he and Anzu were meant to be together. Atem and Teana had been separated for three millennia by his soul being sealed in the Puzzle, but they were together again, at long last. Yugi believed that even though Anzu was leaving him to go to New York, they would still endure as a couple. If Yugi and Anzu were apart for three years, it would be nothing in comparison to the length of time Atem had been torn away from Teana.

::::::::::::

Rather than go back to his office, Seto decide to go home to the mansion instead. He was in no mood for the meeting he had planned so he called his secretary and told her to re-schedule it for the following morning. In his current state of mind, he was worried he would start to make concessions to the proposals put forward by his architect over the design he had n mind for his new school – and he did not want people to think he was turning soft.

What on earth had possessed him to invite Yugi into a business partnership, and even offer to subsidise a university degree? Offer him a job, yes. But a partnership?! At this rate, he would soon be offering the mutt a job, and offering to clear his debts for him. Fuck! Why was he even thinking about the mutt?!

He dismissed Isono, and stomped inside the mansion, slamming the door behind him. Perhaps Mahado put a hex on him or something. He would not put it past him to do so, if Atem requested it. The Pharaoh had spent two years lecturing him about compassion and teamwork, and even put him in a coma at one point to try and force him to atone.

He had always successfully resisted the Pharaohs' attempts at changing him, but now! "What is happening to me?" He growled, heading straight for the drinks cabinet. It was only three fifteen but what the heck. One large scotch wouldn't hurt.

He gulped it down and relished in the warm burn to gave to the back of his throat and the heat as it spread through his body, numbing his nerve endings; they sure needed numbing.

By the time he sat down at his laptop to write up Yugi's contract, he had downed two.

He got as far as copy and pasting the standard Kaiba Corp. guidelines that were issued to all employees and representatives of the company, before growing fidgety and bored.

He was really tempted to investigate the maternal side of Yugi's family. What was it about his mother's father remarrying and having another child? Was it possible that the child was his and Mokuba's mother? He opened the drawer and grabbed the fidget spinner Mokuba had insisted on giving to him for his last birthday. It was in a silvery blue, with the KC logo embossed onto it, and had been sitting in the drawer unused, until now. He spun it furiously and watched at the way the KC letters blurred into one continuous line.

He wanted to kick himself for being so curious about his and Yugi's family trees. With his influence (hacking skills) it was easy to obtain birth, marriage and death records.

The result? He decided to keep that to himself.

::::::::::::

The time had come for Anzu to leave for New York. Her friends were all happy that she was leaving to pursue the ambition she had worked so hard for since childhood.

As they walked into the airport departure lounge, Yugi reminisced on the day he and Jonouchi had followed Anzu to Burger World, where she had been working. It had been against school rules for students to work, and she had been risking expulsion from school and bringing shame on her family if caught.

He smiled to himself as he remembered how cute she looked in that uniform and how sexy she was when she angrily squirted ketchup all over them and their food. But she had then calmed down a little and told them of her secret ambition to go to New York and train as a dancer. They had been so impressed that they had vowed to support her and keep her secret safe.

Whilst they had not doubted her ambition to dance, they had never imagined that she would actually make it to New York. The school there was expensive and the competition just to get accepted was fierce. But Anzu was determined, and here they were now, saying goodbye.

He insisted on pushing the trolley containing her bags into the check-in hall, and then he waited with the rest of their friends while she checked herself and her bags in.

With her bags sent off for loading onto the plane, she went over to where her friends were standing. "Well, I suppose I should go now." There was a nervous hesitation in her voice that did not go unnoticed by any of them.

"Hey! You will knock em dead in New York!" Jonouchi grinned, trying to ease her nerves.

"That's what I'm worried about," she giggled, making them all laugh.

"You will do amazingly well Anzu, I promise," Bakura soothingly reassured.

"Yeah," added Honda, "Look at it as your next adventure. Only without card games trying to kill you."

"What's that meant to mean ya jerk?!" Jonouchi punched him on the shoulder.

Anzu could feel her concerns easing slightly. Her crazy male friends had a way of making even the toughest challenges seem fun!

She turned to Yugi, who was standing in front of her, smiling expectantly. They had said their 'proper' goodbye yesterday afternoon, in private. "I will message you as soon as the plane lands."

He took both her hands in his lightly. "Message me, and can you send photos of your room when you arrive at the school?"

"I will," she nodded, winking. "And you will keep me up to date on news at home, won't you?"

"Yeah, I will," he let go of her hands and hoping their friends would not noticed, mouthed "love you,"

Winking, she mouthed, "love you too," and raised her hand to his, for the most meaningful high five in history.

Laughing, she gave all of her friends high fives.

The announcer called that her flight would be boarding in twenty minutes. "I should go."

As she turned to leave them, she felt a little of what Atem must have felt when he stepped through those gates. Only his trip was more final than hers. Stop being silly, she told herself as tears threatened to fall.

"Bye guys! Don't forget to come and visit me!" She hurried away and waved to them again from the line she was in to go through passport control and security.

"You bet we will! Smell ya later!" She heard Jonouchi call out, and it made her tears turn to laughter.

They all turned to leave the airport, but Yugi lingered, watching as Anzu disappeared from view.

"You guys wait outside for us," said Jonouchi, going back to where Yugi stood.

He clamped his little buddy on the back. And gripped his shoulder. "She'll be fine Yugi."

Yugi heaved a big sigh. "I know she will. It's just, I can't believe she's leaving. First Atem, now Anzu."

"Yeah, sometimes I think you will all up and leave and I will be stuck here with my drunken old man. Working lousy, dead end jobs for the rest of my life." There was a hint of resignation in Jonouchi's voice, making Yugi feel bad for his friend's situation. He did not say anything, because he did not want to get Jonouchi's hopes up and then let him down, but he decided that he would use his influence as the King of Games, to get Jonouchi free entry into the pro-league tournaments – even if it meant that he would have to fight his principles and dislike of the pro-league, due to the match fixing that went on, and accept the offers he was always getting to make a few guest appearances.

"Come on Jonouchi, we should go," Yugi smiled, reflectively. "How about we get some burgers on the way home?"

They jogged to catch up with their friends. "Hey guys!" Jonouchi grinned broadly, and announced cheerfully."Burgers are on Yugi!"

The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your thoughts on it.


End file.
